The strained relationship

Roosevelt wanted to help... but he had to bring voters with him

- By Phil Craig

WINSTON Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt forged a war-winning alliance, and a deep personal friendship that survived many crises.

American military power and huge quantities of economic aid were critical in every theatre of the war and boosted both Britain and the Soviet Union.

Securing that support was rightly the focus of Churchill's government from the first hour that he took office. But it wasn't always easy - it was dogged by clashing agendas and deep suspicions and it very nearly didn't happen at all. Because although it may seem obvious now that the US would ultimately come to the aid of Britain, it seemed anything but that during the first year of the war.

Helping Britain resist Europe's tyrants was very much Roosevelt's intention but this was not an easy sell to his party or his nation. Anti-war, anti-British and anti-colonial feelings were strong in America and there were powerful groups - notably the many voters of Irish, German and Italian descent - who did not easily give their support to Winston Churchill and the nation that he led. Powerful figures like the US Ambassador to Britain, Joseph Kennedy, and US isolationist crusader (and borderline pro-Nazi) Charles Lindberg, had mass appeal, as can be seen by the huge scale of the latter's anti-war rallies.

Equally, there was a presidential election coming in November 1940 and so, if Roosevelt wanted to help "the Limeys", he would have to show his people and his party there was something in it for Uncle Sam.

He did so by extracting some valuable real estate in return for US aid through the "destroyers-for-bases" deal in September of that year, where 50 US Navy warships were transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. And then - having won re-electionhe was able to go further with the Lend-Lease scheme, in which he could lend or lease war materials to allies, including Britain.