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Editorial Note

No official record of the substance of the discussion at this meeting has been found. According to Churchill’s account in Hinge of Fate, pp. 379–381, the meeting was given over to consideration of the problem of sharing American and British information on the development of atomic weapons. In a telegram of February 27, 1943, to Hopkins, Churchill summarized the history of American-British relations on the atomic-bomb project and recalled this particular meeting at Hyde Park in the following terms:

“The President and the Prime Minister discussed the question generally at Hyde Park in June 1942, and it is the Prime Minister’s clear recollection that the whole basis of the conversation was that there was to be complete cooperation and sharing of results.” (Hopkins Papers)

In another telegram to Hopkins, also on February 27, 1943, Churchill described the Hyde Park meeting as follows:

“When the President and I talked of this matter at Hyde Park in June 1942, my whole understanding was that everything was on the basis of fully sharing the results of equal partners. I have no record, but I shall be very much surprised if the President’s recollection does not square with this.” (Hopkins Papers)

In The Memoirs of General the Lord Ismay (London: Heinemann, 1960), p. 254, Ismay remembers that when he reported to the Prime Minister at the White House on the morning of June 21, 1942, Churchill told him that he had reached a satisfactory agreement with Roosevelt on the atomic bomb project. Ismay also was told by Churchill that he had briefly discussed with Roosevelt the question of possible operations in Northwest Africa. It was probably at this meeting that Churchill gave Roosevelt the memorandum printed post, p. 461, outlining the strategic decisions facing the Allies. According to the account in Margaret Go wing, Britain and Atomic Energy 1939–1945 (New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1964), p. 145, there was no British written record of this conversation and Churchill did not report upon it when he returned to London.