It was sixty five years ago today…(14 Jan)
...that US President Franklin D Roosevelt met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a wartime conference in Casablanca. The ten day meeting in French Morocco, which was codenamed SYMBOL, most significantly ended with an agreement entitled the ‘Casablanca Declaration’. This committed the Allies to settle for nothing less than the unconditional surrender of the Axis forces. In setting out the declaration to the American people FDR told them:
‘...that the only terms on which we shall deal with an Axis government or any Axis factions are the terms proclaimed at Casablanca: “Unconditional Surrender.” In our uncompromising policy we mean no harm to the common people of the Axis nations. But we do mean to impose punishment and retribution in full upon their guilty, barbaric leaders… ‘
The officials at the conference had several dilemmas to sort out. The key questions centred on what kind of split of forces between the Far East / Pacific and Europe / North Africa and where, if at all, a second front should be opened. Essentially, and for possibly for the last time, the British held sway. The American delegation found themselves agreeing to devote their major efforts to the European theatre although without launching a major invasion of north-west Europe in 1943.
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