Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/19498: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in Egypt (Kirk)

Washington, February 27, 1942—8 p.m.

168. A paraphrase of your 273, February 16, 11 a.m., was transmitted to the War Department, which desires you to be informed in effect that the Chiefs of Staff and the Combined Planning Committee are cognizant of the situation in the Middle East. Every consideration is being given to the requirements of that area consistent with the needs of other vital areas and with the means available.15a

Welles
  1. Concerning the place of Egypt and the Middle East in War Department planning in 1942, see Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941–1942, in the series United States Army in World War II: The War Department (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1953), particularly pp. 165–168, 198–202, 226–227, 244–255, 277, and 297–298.↩