From The Decisive Battles of the Western World
by Major-General J. F. C. Fuller (1954-6)
The first of [the] decisive conferences was assembled in Washington in late December, 1941, and it was code-named “Arcadia.” Mr. Churchill left England on December 12, and arrived in Washington on the 22nd. Before his departure, Mr. Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary, had left for Russia, and while still at sea Mr. Churchill received from him a report of his first conversations with Stalin, a statesman who never fell into the error of looking upon war as anything other than an instrument of policy. . . .The work of the conference may be divided under two headings, military and political.
The military planning was in every way excellent. . . .
The second was the fateful beginning of the end — the initiation of a policy which was to cost the two western allies the peace. It was the pet idea of President Roosevelt and was called by him the “Great Design.” It was a reversion to the Wilsonian policy of 1917-1918 without the 14 points . . . His proposal was that, once the war was at an end, the nations of the world should be united into a great organization for peace. This association of severing Powers was to be modeled on the American inter-state system . . . Since it was essential that this band of brothers should include Russia, nothing must be left undone to win Stalin’s collaboration. In the President’s opinion this presented no insuperable difficulty, because Harry Hopkins, his eminence grise,1 who had visited Stalin soon after the German invasion, had told him that it was ridiculous to think of Stalin as a communist ; he was nothing of the sort, he was a great Russian nationalist and patriot. Whatever his views might be about the future of Europe, he must be won over. Although the President did not then realize it, appeasement of Russia was to become the linch-pin in allied policy.
This sublime nonsense . . . was accepted by the conference as the peace programme of the allied Powers, and on January 1, 1942, a joint declaration was signed by the United States and United Kingdom, as well as 24 other nations, including the U.S.S.R. . . .
1 Sherwood calls him “the de facto Deputy President” (The White House Papers of Harry L. Hopkins, 1946, vol. I, p. 267) ; Churchill — “high among the Paladins,” and Representative Dewey Short of Missouri — “The White House Rasputin”.
( pages 457 – 459 )
London : Eyre and Spottiswoode, Vol. III, 1956.
Fuller, J. F. C. (John Frederick Charles), 1878-1966. Title(s) A military history of the Western World. Publisher New York, Funk & Wagnalls, 1954-56. Paging 3 v. illus., maps. 24 cm. Notes London ed. (Eyre & Spottiswoode) has title: The decisive battles of the Western World and their influence upon history. Bibliographical footnotes.Fuller, J. F. C. (John Frederick Charles), 1878-1966. Title(s) The decisive battles of the Western World, and their influence upon history. Publisher London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1954-56. Paging 3 v. Illus., maps. 23 cm. Notes Bibliographical footnotes.