Foreign Relations of the United States, The Conferences at Washington, 1941–1942, and Casablanca, 1943

Hopkins Papers

Hopkins Notes

[Extracts]¹

Casablanca, January 19, 1943.

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The Prime Minister told me he wanted to see me this morning. He had not yet heard from London about de Gaulle and seemed to be unhappy about the President’s decision to close up the conference with the Chiefs of Staff here on Wednesday afternoon.²

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I found Churchill in bed and he told me that while the second raid on Berlin looked pretty good, the weather had been bad and he was not sure how much damage had been done.³ He told me that he was sure his forces attacking Tripolitania were much further along than they had anticipated and that that was very good. I asked him what was bothering him about winding up the business with the Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday and he told me that he didn’t have anything specific in mind, that he thought the Chiefs of Staff were going to work out a pretty good agreement. He did tell me, however, that he intended to fly to Cairo as soon as the President left and work out the new Middle East Command with General Wilson in charge, and that he wanted to meet the President of Turkey perhaps in Cyprus, and push him pretty hard on the business of getting Turkey into the war, and giving us some adequate air bases, and to attack Roumanian oil fields.⁴ He told me he intended to take the line that Turkey should not wait until the last minute, but that if they were recalcitrant he would not hesitate to tell the Turks that in the event of their remaining out, he could not undertake to control the Russians regarding the Dardanelles and that their position would be intolerable.

I arranged to have dinner with Harriman and Churchill tonight because the President and Elliott are dining with General Patton. The Prime Minister was anxious that the President not tell Giraud that de Gaulle had refused to show up, because he was hoping to get a message from de Gaulle any minute. He said he wanted to come to see the President around five or six o’clock tonight. I went back to the house and told the President that the Prime Minister did not want Giraud told.⁵

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1. For other portions of these notes dealing with the Hopkins–Harriman–Poniatowski and Roosevelt–Giraud meetings, see supra and post, p. 646, respectively.
2. In another portion of his notes, Hopkins records that during the course of the morning, prior to his meetings with Poniatowski and Churchill, he arranged with the President the schedule for the remainder of the week. The President agreed that the Conference should be completed at an early date, followed by a review of the troops on Thursday, January 21, a dinner with the Sultan on January 22, and departure no later than Saturday morning, January 23.
3. In messages to Stalin on January 17 and January 18, Churchill reported very briefly on two air raids against Berlin; for texts of the messages and Stalin’s reply of January 19, see Stalin’s Correspondence, vol. i, pp. 85–86.
4. For Churchill’s description of his visit to Turkey following the conclusion of the Casablanca Conference, see Hinge of Fate, pp. 696 ff.
5. The Hopkins notes continue with a description of the Roosevelt-Giraud conversation; see post, p. 646.