Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets by David Stafford

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The author of the acclaimed Churchill and the Secret Service draws on wartime files only recently released as background for his new work—an intriguing look behind the congenial façade of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, revealing how each jealously guarded knowledge from the other in pursuit of separate national interests.

Theirs was a unique relationship. It was based on linked national histories and partially shared nationality—Churchill was half-American—similarities in class and education, a special love for the navy, and a common belief in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon institutions. But above all, it was cemented by shared enemies: Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. On these foundations Roosevelt and Churchill constructed a fighting alliance unlike any other in history. Each in his own way had to deal with two other allies of stature—Joseph Stalin and Charles de Gaulle—whose agendas were certainly different again.

Roosevelt and Churchill also developed an extraordinary personal relationship, communicating almost daily by telegram, telephone, meetings, or contact through intermediaries. Their complicated camaraderie—which was always dynamic—ended abruptly with FDR's death on April 12, 1945, just hours before American and British troops liberated Buchenwald and Belsen.

At the heart of this special relationship, hidden by layers of secrecy, was an extraordinary and far-reaching (though by no means complete) sharing of intelligence and a fascination for clandestine operations. This was the most sensitive touchstone of their mutual trust and, as David Stafford's masterly study demonstrates, a responsive barometer of both suspicion and discord.

Table of Contents

Contents

1 Men of Secrets

2 Exchanging Views

3 Knowing Friends

4 Making Contact

5 Undeclared War

6 The Last Pirate of the Mediterranean

7 The Cavalry of St George

8 Intercept Magic

9 The Ties That Bind

10 Fifth Columns

11 Action Stations

12 Our Man in Manila

13 'Just a Romantic Limey'

14 'I Love These Americans'

15 Mission Impossible

16 House Guests

17 'Almost Homosexual'

18 'Same Bed, Different Dreams'

19 Friends Apart

20 Allies at War

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