[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 119 (Tuesday, September 14, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1875-E1876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1875]]
 THE CASABLANCA CONFERENCE--AN HISTORIC MEETING OF WORLD WAR II ALLIES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 14, 1999

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, the following article by Ambassador Joseph 
Verner Reed, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, from the March 1999 
Newsletter of the American Society of the French Legion of Honor, 
documents the war time diplomacy between the United States and Great 
Britain. The Casablanca Conference between President Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill took place in early 
1943, and as this article documents set the stage for the end game of 
World War II in the European theater.

                [From the ASFLH Newsletter, March 1999]

                The Casablanca Conference, January 1943

                   (By Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed)

       In the spring edition of the ASFLH Newsletter (June 1998, 
     Vol. 5, No. 2), an article on the history of the White House 
     by our President, Guy Wildenstein, caught my eye. Regarding 
     the historic 1943 meeting of President Franklin Roosevelt and 
     Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco, 
     it was noted that Marshall Josef Stalin and General Charles 
     de Gaulle were also participants at the conference. In point 
     of clarification, Marshall Stalin did not attend the 
     Casablanca Conference. General de Gaulle had a ``cameo role'' 
     on the last day of the ten-day event.
       Herewith are some details on the Casablanca Conference 
     which took place in Morocco in early 1943--a summit meeting 
     which determined the future course of American and British 
     wartime operations and history.
       As a former Ambassador to Morocco, I spent many days at the 
     elegant Villa Mirador, the official residence of the Consul 
     General of the US in Casablanca. Villa Mirador served as 
     Prime Minister Churchill's residence during the Casablanca 
     Conference. President Roosevelt was hosted nearby in Villa 
     Dar es Saada (House of Happiness). The master bedroom is 
     located on the ground floor--a suitable layout for the 
     handicapped President.
       In the closing months of 1942, debate over European 
     strategy had entered a new stage. On November 25, President 
     Roosevelt wrote to Prime Minister Churchill that a high level 
     meeting should be held with the Russians, perhaps in Cairo or 
     Moscow itself, to discuss the Alliance war effort. The US had 
     been at war for less than a full year. Roosevelt and 
     Churchill had yet to meet jointly with Stalin to discuss the 
     basic strategy of their ``Alliance''--an odd alliance forged 
     only through the necessity of combating a common enemy--Nazi 
     Germany and the apocalyptic horrors of World War II.
       Roosevelt, believing a meeting of the Alliance would be 
     held in Cairo, proposed to Churchill in a second letter dated 
     December 2, 1942, to have a private bilateral Anglo-American 
     meeting at a site south of Algiers or in Khartoum prior to 
     meeting with the Russians. The President wanted to keep this 
     advance meeting secret as he did ``not want to give Stalin 
     the impression we are settling everything between ourselves 
     before we meet him.'' In his letter, Roosevelt noted that 
     ``Stalin has already agreed to a purely military conference 
     to be held in Moscow.''
       Two weeks later, on December 17, 1942, Roosevelt reported 
     to Churchill that Stalin had sent a reply expressing his 
     regret that he would be unable to attend a meeting of the 
     Alliance leadership as it was ``impossible for me [Stalin] to 
     leave the Soviet Union either in the near future or even at 
     the beginning of March. Front business absolutely prevents 
     it, demanding may constant presence near our troops.'' (N.B. 
     During the winter of '42-'43, Marshall Stalin was in day-to-
     day command of the defense of Stalingrad.)
       In his communique Stalin said nothing about a military 
     meeting with Roosevelt and Churchill in Moscow--a proposal to 
     which Roosevelt believed Stalin had already agreed. Roosevelt 
     sent word back to the Kremlin that he was ``deeply 
     disappointed'' with Stalin's reply. Marshall Stalin responded 
     by stating they could discuss questions by correspondence 
     until they were able to meet in the future. On substantive 
     issues, Stalin wrote, ``I think we shall not differ.''
       In that same message, Marshall Stalin called for the 
     opening of a Second Front in Europe. ``I feel confident,'' he 
     went on, ``the promise to open a Second Front in Europe, 
     which you, Mr. President, and Mr. Churchill gave for 1942, or 
     the spring of 1943 at the latest, will be kept and that a 
     Second Front in Europe will be opened jointly by Great 
     Britain and the USA next spring.'' Thus, without having to 
     attend, Marshall Stalin left his imprimatur on the proposed 
     Allied conference by raising the question of a Second Front.
       Even without Marshall Stalin, President Roosevelt believed 
     he should meet face-to-face with Prime Minister Churchill to 
     discuss the war effort. But where? England was out as a 
     meeting place ``for political reasons,'' and the President 
     wanted to depart the highly charged atmosphere of Washington. 
     With no Josef Stalin, the US and British leaders would have 
     no need for foreign affairs specialists because their 
     discussions would be essentially military-related. Foreign 
     Secretary Eden and Secretary of State Hull did not attend. 
     Was it possible to meet in a convenient and recently 
     vanquished territory under Allied control? What about 
     Morocco?
       On December 21, 1942, Roosevelt wrote to Churchill 
     proposing a meeting in ``a safe place--Casablanca.'' 
     Churchill agreed. The conference was code-named ``Symbol.''
       The President departed on January 11 from Miami, Florida, 
     for his fourth official meeting with Prime Minister 
     Churchill. The Casablanca Conference turned out to be the 
     first in a series of great midwar international conferences.
       January 11 was further marked as an historic occasion as it 
     was the first time a US President had flown in an aircraft 
     while in office. It was also the first time that a sitting 
     American President had left the US in a time of war.
       President Roosevelt's departure and his destination were 
     carefully guarded secrets. The Navy Department was assigned 
     responsibility for overseeing all travel operations. 
     Casablanca, the site of the conference, lay across the 
     hazardous Atlantic; a circuitous route covering some 7,372 
     air miles was selected, and the presidential party was in the 
     air and taxiing for 46 hours and 38 minutes (ample time for 
     talks with the Presidential Advisor Harry Hopkins, cards and 
     martinis).
       The President and his entourage boarded a Pan American 
     World Airways ``Flying Boat'' Clipper Ship (a Boeing 314) in 
     Miami, Florida (the Dixie Clipper). They flew to Port of 
     Spain, Trinadad--on to Belem in Brazil--then on to Bathurst, 
     a former British colony in The Gambia. West Africa.
       An identical back-up Clipper followed the President's plane 
     as a precautionary measure--setting further precedent for the 
     tradition of two identical Air Force Ones to be flown in 
     tandem as the US President travels. Roosevelt and his 
     entourage then transferred to an Air Transport Command plane 
     of the Army Air Corps (a C-54) for the last leg of the 
     journey--the flight to Casablanca.
       President Roosevelt arrived in Casablanca on the afternoon 
     of January 14, 1943. Prime Minister Churchill arrived the day 
     before. The Hotel Anfa was to serve as the conference 
     headquarters. The hotel and the villas surrounding it were 
     renamed ``Anfa Camp'' for the duration of the conference.
       Surrounded by palm trees, bougainvillea, orange groves and 
     with sparkling sunny skies overhead, the conference was still 
     held amidst a wartime atmosphere. The perimeter of Anfa Camp 
     was protected by barbed wire entanglements with only two 
     entrances guarded by sentries; heavily armed infantrymen kept 
     watch on the Hotel Anfa and all residential villas, and the 
     skies were filled with patrolling fighter squadrons.
       Only two months previously, the Allies had landed in 
     Morocco on November 8, 1942. A fellow member of our Society, 
     General Vernon A. Walters, landed as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 
     coastal port of Safi, south of Casablanca in Operation Torch. 
     (The other landings were at Port Lyautey [now Kenitra] and 
     Mohammedia.)
       Though the strange alliance of the Western Powers and the 
     Soviet Union was linked by the common bond of Axis danger, 
     they had yet to agree on an overall strategy for containing 
     and confronting the Wehrmacht German Army, and, in January 
     1943, the issue of opening a Second Front in Western Europe 
     remained entirely an unresolved issue.
       Even between the US and the UK, fundamental war strategy 
     and joint planning for the immediate future were unsettled. 
     These were not easy matters, and in addition to plenary 
     sessions, the participants of the Casablanca Conference 
     carried on informal discussions over luncheon and dinner. The 
     dinners sometimes lasted into the early hours of the next 
     morning!
       Even so, the Casablanca Conference progressed and, at its 
     conclusion, marked many strategic milestones and decisions. 
     During the ten-day event, the two groups of leaders and 
     advisors held fifteen separate official joint meetings. The 
     military objectives derived from the intense deliberqtions in 
     Casablanca were:
       Defeat the German submarine force in the Atlantic.
       Increase the number of American troops in Great Britain.
       Strengthen the air campaign against Nazi Germany.
       Attempt to bring Turkey into the war against the Axis.
       Prepare for the ultimate invasion of Western Europe.
       Invade Sicily.
       At the conference, President Roosevelt first introduced the 
     principle of ``unconditional surrender'' of the Axis--a 
     concept that was to have important consequences for the 
     Allied Coalition for the remainder of the war.
       While in Casablanca, President Roosevelt also had a dinner 
     meeting with the Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed V, on January 
     22. Among the subjects discussed was ``post-war colonial 
     liberation.'' Did this ``exchange of views'' between 
     President Roosevelt and Sultan Mohammed V that evening 
     portend independence for Morocco?
       Toward the end of the conference, General Charles de Gaulle 
     was ``invited'' from England to meet with Roosevelt and 
     Churchill. General de Gaulle, the London-based leader of 
     ``the Free French Government in Exile,'' arrived in 
     Casablanca on January 22. On the last day of the conference, 
     the U.S. President and the British Prime Minister met 
     separately with de Gaulle and General Henri Giraud, the High 
     Commissioner of French Africa, who had replaced Admiral 
     Darlan after the latter's assassination in Algiers on 
     December 24, 1942.
       Both Giraud and de Gaulle were rivals for leadership of the 
     Free French. The conference was winding down, and though the 
     President and the Prime Minister considered the ten-day 
     effort a ``great success,'' the exception was a failure to 
     obtain a real conciliation between Generals Giraud and de 
     Gaulle.
       Nonetheless, it was an important public relations objective 
     to demonstrate ``solidarity,'' and on January 24, Lord Moran, 
     the personal physician of Prime Minister Churchill, wrote in 
     his diary, ``The President decided the lawn behind his 
     bungalow, Villa

[[Page E1876]]

     Dar es Saada, should be the site of an interesting ceremony .  
     .  .''
       The Allied war effort continued. General George C. Marshall 
     was immediately dispatched to Moscow to debrief Marshall 
     Stalin on the results of the conference. When Stalin learned 
     that Roosevelt and Churchill had decided to forego, for the 
     immediate future, a Second Front through an invasion of 
     France, he declined to receive General Marshall. For the 
     Russians, the ``Great Patriotic War'' would go on for another 
     year and a half before the opening of a Second Front with the 
     Normandy invasion in June 1944.
       Later that year, President Roosevelt did meet with Marshall 
     Stalin in Teheran, Iran, for the first time on November 28--
     December 1, 1943. Despite Stalin's disappointment over the 
     timing of the Second Front, at the final dinner Marshall 
     Stalin made the memorable toast, ``Without America, we 
     [Russia] would already have lost the war.'' (N.B. Churchill 
     first met Stalin in Moscow, in July 1942.)

     

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