Churchill's Turn: Meeting "Ibn Saud," Fayyoum, February 1945

Yesterday I (belatedly) noted the 70th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's meeting with King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa‘ud (usually referred to by Westerners at the time as "Ibn Saud") aboard the USS Quincy in February 1946. After meeting the King on February 14, FDR departed for Alexandria and there, on February 15, met Winston Churchill, who was also returning from Yalta. Then FDR departed for home. It was the last time Churchill and FDR met; Roosevelt died in April.

Auberge du Lac in the 1940s

Churchill proceeded from Alexandria to the Fayyoum Oasis, while the King's party was driven from the Suez Canal. Churchill hosted a lunch at the Auberge du Lac Hotel, a former hunting lodge of King Farouq converted to a hotel with views of Lake Qarun. (The hotel in 1945 was not the present one, built in 1954 on the same site.)

As is often the case with Churchill, the best storyteller in this case is himself, The story is told in Volume VI of The Second World War, Triumph and Tragedy, pp. 397-398 of the US edition:

After the departure of our American friends I had arranged  meeting with Ibn Saud. He had been transported to the conference with the President in he American destroyer Murphy, and travelled with all the splendour of an Eastern potentate, with an entourage of some fifty persons, including two sons, his Prime Minister, his Astrologer, and flocks of sheep to be killed according to Moslem rites. On February 17 his reception was organised at the Hôtel du Lac at Fayum oasis, from which we had temporarily removed all residents.

 Churchill then relates an anecdote his biographers frequently cite:

A number of social problems arose. I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic beverages were allowed in the Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them. The King graciously accepted the position. His own cup-bearer from Mecca offered me a glass of water from its sacred well, the most delicious I had ever tasted. 

And there were other issues:

It had been indicated to me beforehand that here would be an interchange of presents during the course of our meeting. I had therefore made what I thought were adequate arrangements. "Tommy" Thompson [Churchill's aide] had bought for me in Cairo for about a hundred pounds, at the Government's expense, a little case of very choice perfumes which I presented. We were all given jewelled swords, diamond-hilted, and other splendid gifts. Sarah [Churchill's daughter] had an enormous portmanteau which Ibn Saud had provided for "your womenfolk." I appeared that we were rather outclassed in gifts, so I told the King, "What we bring are but tokens. His Majesty's Government have decided to present you with the finest motor-car in the world, with every comfort for peace and every security against hostile action." This was later done.

I assume it was a Rolls-Royce.

King Ibn Saud made a striking impression. My admiration for him was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us. He was always at his best in the darkest hours. He was now over seventy, but had lost none of his warrior vigour. He still lived he existence of a patriarchal King of the Arabian desert, with his forty living sons and the seventy ladies of his harem, and three of the four legal wives, as prescribed by the Prophet, one vacancy being left.

Churchill omits the awkward fact that one key topic of conversation was Palestine, where Churchill hoped to extricate Britain from its Palestine Mandate through peaceful partition and hoped for Saudi support. That was not forthcoming.

February 1945: Roosevelt Meets "Ibn Saud"

Admiral William D. Leahy, Bill Eddy translating, the King and FDR

I've been so preoccupied with the 100th anniversary of World War I that I let slip a critical 70th anniversary: the meetings between Franklin D. Roosevelt and King Farouq, Haile Selassie, and King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa‘ud ("Ibn Saud") in the Suez Canal in February 1945. FDR was returning from the Yalta Conference on the the cruiser USS Quincy. The conference took place February 12-14, 1945, so I'm a couple of days late in noting its anniversary. Roosevelt arrived by air from Yalta and then traveled to join the Quincy in the Great Bitter Lake of the Suez Canal. The next day he met with King Farouq and Haile Selassie.

On February 14th the the destroyer USS Murphy, which had been sent to Jidda to bring the King and his party to Egypt, arrived. In the negotiations that followed, Roosevelt sought to obtain King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz' cooperation on Palestinian partition (unsuccessfully), but also negotiated the right to build an air base at Dhahran and secure access to Saudi oil supplies for the West, the beginning of the long Saudi-US security relationship. (The US was already involved through US oil companies' partnership in the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO.)

The first film clip is partially in color; though the two clips show the same events there are some differences in detail.

The US Marine Corps colonel appearing in the meetings with Roosevelt and Ibn Saud is Colonel Bill Eddy, the US Minister to Saudi Arabia. You can find an account of the meeting written by Eddy here. For more about Eddy, see Tom Lippman's 2008 book, Arabian Knight: Colonel Bill Eddy USMC and the Rise of American Power in the Middle East.

You can find Eddy's own account of the meeting here.

 I note that both newsreels say that this is the first time Ibn Saud had left his Kingdom. I guess they mean since he became King; he spent his youth in exile in Kuwait until he led the raid on Riyadh that expelled the Rashid family and restored the Sauds, beginning the formation of the Kingdom.

A Family Connection Between the Man Who Closed the Dardanelles in 1914 and a Major Figure of WWII

Erich Paul Weber (Weber Pasha)

As I noted in my earlier post today, Turkey's closing of the Dardanelles on September 27, 1914 was not actually a decision made by the Turkish government, but initially by the German commander of the fortifications on the east (Asian) Side of the Strait, Erich Paul Weber (1860-1933), an Oberst (colonel) of engineers and later General, commanding the XV Pioneer Army Corps at Kum Kale. he had been in charge of the fortifications along the Asian side of the Dardanelles and, apparently entirely on his own initiative and without consulting the Ottoman Government, Weber Pasha (as he was known in Ottoman service) closed and mined the Dardanelles.

But there is a historical footnote to the tale of Weber Pasha. Having been sent to Turkey before the war, his family had been allowed to accompany him, including his daughter Ingeborg, a nurse. After the Goeben  and Breslau arrived (and became the Yavuz Sultan and Medilli), Ingeborg became acquainted with a young (born 1891) naval Leutnant zur See or acting sub-lieutenant) on the Breslau. After receiving the approval of the Navy authorities she married him on May 27, 1916 in Istanbul, by which time the young officer had been promoted to Oberleutnant.

The young naval lieutenant was named Karl Dönitz.

Breslau's officers don the fez: Dönitz in front row

Yes: the same Karl Dönitz who would command the German submarine forces in World War II, later becoming Grand Admiral and Navy Commander, and named by Hitler as his successor as President of Germany (but not Führer, the title of Chancellor going to Goebbels, but he committed suicide). During the last days of World War II Dönitz was the last Chief of State of the Third Reich and the man who signed the surrender.

Dönitz holding dog, said to be taken aboard Goeben

This link between the World Wars is hardly unique; most of the general and flag officers of the Second World War were young officers in the First.

The Nuremburg Tribunal sentenced Dönitz to 10 years in Spandau Prison. Released in 1956 he lived quietly in Germany until his death in 1980. Ingeborg (born 1894) had died in 1962. They are shown together in the photo at left.

69 Years Ago Today: The Sétif Massacre in Algeria

Sixty-nine years ago today, on May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany formally surrendered. In French-ruled Algeria, a Muslim march celebrating the victory in the town of Sétif near Constantine also displayed banners critical of colonialism and supporting independence. The marchers came into conflict with local gendarmes; while France  and Algerian Muslims would dispute who fired first, the clashes worsened and spread to the nearby town of Guelma. Algerian Muslims began attacking French colons in the streets, and the settler pieds noirs fought back. Over a hundred Europeans died in a five-day period, after which France struck back hard, using troops, aerial bombing, and even naval shelling. There were systematic killings and vigilante actions as well. Though the French claimed 1,020 deaths in toto, most estimates place the actual death toll several times higher, many of them villagers unconnected to the original clashes..

As Mohammed Harbi notes in a piece in Le Monde Diplomatique marking the 60th anniversary in 2005:

There were many repercussions: any hopes of a deal between the Algerian people and the European colony were off. In France the political forces of the wartime resistance movement failed their first test on decolonisation, allowing themselves to be taken over by the pro-colonial party. The architect of the repressive measures, General Duval, warned: “I have secured you peace for 10 years. If France does nothing, it will all happen again, only next time it will be worse and may well be irreparable."

In fact, he had bought only nine years; it was indeed worse, and indeed irreparable. On November 1, 1954 (All Saint's Day, later known as Toussaint Rouge) the Algerians rose up in the bloody war that led to independence in 1962.

Sétif was conveniently forgotten in France, but it became  major inflammatory moment in the growth of Algerian nationalism, sometimes described in Algerian revolutionary rhetoric as a "genocide."

Wrapping Up the 1943 Conferences: Second Cairo

Over the past few weeks we've gone into some detail about the first two of the three World War II summits held in Cairo and Tehran 70 years ago in November and December 1943; one remains to be mentioned, the Second Cairo Conference, held in Cairo between Roosevelt, Churchil, and Turkish President İsmet İnönü on December 4-6. I'd planned to post this Friday, nearer the actual dates, but felt the Mandela posts took precedence.

Second Cairo tends to be overlooked, but of the three it was the one with the most direct connection with the affairs of the Middle East, the venue but not the subject of the others. As İnönü's presence receals, this was an effort, though an unsuccessful one, to bring Turkey into the wa on the Allied side.

Churchill, whose preoccupation with Europe and with attacking the enemy through the "soft underbelly of Europe" dateed to his championing of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I, was eager to outflank the Axis-controlled Balkans and had been urging an Allied occupation of Rhodes; bringing Turkey into the war was an element in his plans. FDR and the US Chief of Staff were never enthusiastic about these schemes, seeing them as distractions from the invasion of France.

Churchill had met secretly with İnönüearlier in the year in Adana; İnönü, who had succeeded Kemal Atatürk as President in 1938, was dubious; he feared an attack from Axis Bulgaria, and he suspected (correctly) that Stalin still harbored the ancient Russian desire for Constantinople. At Tehran, Stalin pledged to FDR and Churchill his willingness to assure İnönü that if Bulgaria dclared war on Turkey, the Soviets would declare war on Bulgaria. But Turkey was not reassured.

Churchill had also, earlier, supported a huge financial package for Turkfey, but FDR and Stalin reduced the size of the package, feeling bringing Turkey in was less critical.

İnönü's party leaderswhip did not want him flying to Cairo; Turkey proposed a meeting in Adana, or across the border in Aleppo, but in the end it was Cairo, and he flew in US Army plane from Adana to Cairo.

In the end, Turkey remained neutral. The dmaller financial package was part of it, but FDR and the American Chiefs, suspicious of what thet saw as a Churchill obsession with the Turkish Straits (and remembering Gallipoli), were not all that disappointed.

In the end. Turkey joined the Allies only in 1945, in the last weeks of the European war.

Tehran Conference 1943, Part II: The Young Shah Meets the Big Three

In yesterday's post on the Tehran Conference 70 years ago, I brought the narrative down through November 28, including the young Shah's meetings with the Big Three. (On the Iranian background see the previous post.

Let's start with a contemporary British newsreel of the conference, including the only video clip I've found of the Shah (meeting Churchill: stills with all three below.) Some of the videos I posted last week on the Cairo Conference also include the Tehran Conference.
An aside about Churchill's presentation of the "Sword of Stalingrad" to Stalin, shown in the video, though it's not really about the Middle East. The specially cast sword of Sheffield steel was a gift of King George VI to the heroic people of Stalingrad, was presented by Churchill to Stalin in a solemn ceremony on November 28. You will see in the video Chuirchill giving the sword to Stalin, and then Stalin passed it to Marshal Klimint Voroshilov, the senior Soviet military man at the conference and an old Stalin crony who had survived the military purges of the 1930s.

At which point Voroshilov immediately dropped the sword.

In the video,there is a cut-away after Stalin takes the sword, then you see Voroshilov, in uniform, handing it to an aide. The memoirs of Churchill and Harriman, the published parts of Hopkins' diary, the official Presidential log of the conference and George C. Marshall's official biography all omit this, but apparently Harold Nicholson's diary and some other witnesses noted it.

Back to the Middle East. Unlike Casablanca and First Cairo, Tehran addressed, at least briefly, two Middle Eastern questions: the future of Iran and the neutrality of Turkey. On the future of Iran, the Big Three pledged to respect Iranian independence when the war was over (following the toppling of Reza Shah and the occupation of Iran by Britain and the Soviets, the US had also established bases to facilitate the flow of Lend-Lease equipment to Russia, so none were noticeably respecting it in 1943). On Turkey, they discussed the meeting FDR and Churchill were about to have with Turkish President İsmet İnönü at the Second Cairo Conference. I'll discuss that more fully in my post on that conference, but Stalin agreed that if Turkey joined the Allies and Axis Bulgaria declared war on Turkey, the Soviets would declare war on Bulgaria.

Stalin, the Shah, V. Molotov (retouched)

I previously discussed the young Shah's accession to power under British and Soviet guns two years earlier. Normally, when three foreign leaders visit a country, protocol requires them to make a courtesy call on their country's leader, their (particularly nominal in this case) host. Instead, Roosevelt and Churchill entertained the young Shah at the Soviet Legation around noon on November 30.

But Stalin, presumably thinking in postwar terms, and previously unwilling to cross town to meet Roosevelt at the American Legation, was the only one to pay a formal visit to the Shah, where he assured him of Russia's respect for Iranian independence (though international pressure only got the last Soviet troops out of Iran in 1946).

The Shah and FDR

The Shah met with Roosevelt at noon, accompanied by his Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Chief of the Imperial Court. He gave the President an Isfahan carpet designed by the artist Imami measuring 18 by 30 feet.

The Shah and Churchill

The Shah also met with Churchill (though Churchill's six-volume memoirs don't seem to note it), seen at right and in the video above.

I'm leaving out all the meat of the conference. There was plenty of tension between the Big Three: Churchill and FDR over Mediterranean versus Western European strategy, and Churchill and Stalin over the postwar settlement and, given Churchill's deep anti-Communism and Stalin's Bolshevik history, Just Because. Things reportedly went better that evening when Churchill hosted a festive dinner in honor of his 69th birthday. That evening ended with jokes and even teasing among the principals. An explanation may lie in the story told by a Churchill aide that when the two men first met in Moscow in 1942, every meeting was rough going except their last, private lunch, with no one present but interpreters and multiple bottles of spirits and good Georgian wide. When the aides were readmitted, they found the two leaders in a good mood and getting along quite nicely, and the bottles emptied. This may have helped smooth things at the birthday dinner as well. Both Churchill and Stalin were known to like a drink. (This is untrue. Neither man liked a drink; both liked plentiful drinks. Roosevelt was no teetotaler, but he wasn't in the same league.)

On Wednesday morning, the first of December, the President's personal physician, Admiral Ross T. McIntire, expressed concern. He had approved the President flying to Tehran provided the aircraft did not have to climb too high, but learned Wednesday morning of a cold front that might interfere with the Zagros passes on Friday, rquiring the plane to climb to altitudes too high for the Presidrnt or some other members of his party. It was agreed to cut the conference short, with Wednesday, December 1, as the last day. The Combined Chiefs proceeded on to Cairo that day, leaving the Big Three to issue their Joint Declaration (affirming among other things Iranian independence). Roosevelt sent the Shah a silver-framed pictire and gave American chocolates and cigarettes to the staff of the Russian Legation. He departed and spent the night at a US Army base called Camp Amirabad, then proceeded the next morning to the Gale Morghe airfield and headed back to Cairo. Churchill traveled the same day.

The Tehran Conference 1943: 70 Years On

I'd planned to post this sooner, but gave precedence instead to my longish post remembering Ahmad Fuad Negm. Last week I had several posts on the First Cairo Conference, the first of three World War II leadership conferences held successively in the Middle East in November-December 1943, now marking their 70th anniversaries.

The Tehran Conference ran from November 27-December 2, its anniversry mostly coinciding with the past (US) holiday weekend.

To recap a bit for those who came in late: Soviet Premier Stalin had missed the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 because of the Battle of Stalingrad. The first Cairo Conference brought together Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek. But Stalin had  nonaggression pact with Japan and feared a Pacific front in his rear while he was still fighting back the German invasion of the USSR, so he declined to attend in Cairo.

Churchill had met with Stalin in Moscow in 1942. Roosevelt had not yet met Stalin; both leaders felt a personal meeting important prior to the invasion of Western Europe, set for May, 1944. (It would take place in June.) Churchill, FDR, and their staffs proceeded to Tehran to meet Stalin.

Iran at this point was under Soviet and British occupation. When the war broke out the Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi, had declared Iranian neutrality and barred Allied use of Iran's railways; the Allies saw him as flirting with the Axis and were seeking a warm-weather route for the resupply of the Soviet Union. With Turkey also neutral, and the Balkans under the Axis, none was available. In August of 1941, the Soviets and British launched a surprise attack from multiple directions. The Iranian forces collapsed, and the Allies demanded Reza Shah abdicate, but offered him a chance to save his dynasty: abdicate in favor of his 21-year-old heir, Muhammad Reza.  He did so, and in September 1941 he became Shah a bit before his 22nd birthday.

On November 27, 1943, the Churchill and Roosevelt parties flew separately to Tehran. Roosevelt's pilot took a direct route over the city of Jerusalem, circling over the city and pointing out landmarks for the President and his guests. They crossed Iraq and proceeded to follow the Abadan-Tehran road, where the party could see American Lend-Lease equipment being transported toward the USSR.

Only two years after the overthrow of Reza Shah, the Allies still had considerable concern about Axis agents and sympathizers in Iran.  Churchill complained later that his route from the airport to the British Legation was lined by Iranian Cavalry:

It was clearly shown to any evil people that somebody of consequence was coming, and which way. The men on horseback advertised the route, but could provide no protection at all.

Roosevelt, in contrast, had a diversion: an armored  procession ostentatiously proceeded to Tehran, while FDR landed at a different airfield, a Russian field at Gale Morghe south of Tehran. He was not met by an honor delegation and was taken directly in an Army car to the US Legation.

Roosevelt had declined a Soviet invitation to stay at their Legation,but the next day Stalin noted that the Soviet and British Legations were close to each other, but the US Legation was across town and Stalin's security people did not want to risk him traveling so far in the open. On the 28th Roosevelt moved into a separate structure in the Soviet compound though the bulk of the US delegation apparently stayed at the US Legation. Also on the 28th Roosevelt and Stalin held their first meeting,

That evening, through some miracle on the part of FDR's mess crew from Shangri-La (now Camp David: the mess crew were Filipino), who arrived at the new quarters at 4 pm, the President managed to host a dinner for Churchill and Stalin at 8:30.

Tomorrow: The young Shah meets the Big Three.

FDR's Thanksgiving Dinner in Cairo, 1943: The First Cairo Conference, Part IV

This will be the last of my posts on the First Cairo Conference 70 years ago; next week we'll talk about the Tehran Conference and the Second Cairo Conference.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was aware that he would be away for Thanksgiving, which in 1943 fell on November 25. He had brought two turkeys from the United States: one was a gift of Under Secretary of State Edward L. Stettinius, and one donated by Joe Carter of Burnt Corn, Alabama.

Because the primary subject of the Cairo Conference was the war against Japan, I've primarily focused on the Middle Eastern sidelights, but there had been days of hard negotiations, particularly among the Combined Chiefs of Staff but also between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek, especially over the war in the Burma theater. After much hard bargaining, all concerned were apparently ready for a party. Roosevelt threw a Thanksgiving dinner for Churchill (whose mother was American). It was a purely British and American affair; earlier, at 5 pm, the President had entertained .Generalissimo  and Madame Chiang Kai-shek for tea. Relations between Chiang and the others had been difficult. He made extravagant demands for Western aid an his lack of understanding of the outside world (unlike his Americanized wife and translator) was commented upon by other participants. But the Thanksgiving day tea seems to have been cordial and friction-free. Col. Elliott Roosevelt, the President's son, appears to have been the only other person present.

After the tea, Roosevelt conferred at 6:30 with Maj. Gen. Donald H. Connolly, Commander of the US Persian Gulf Service Command about the plans for the imminent visit to Tehran. At 8 pm the President's Thanksgiving guests were welcomed to the President's villa (which as I have previously noted was that of the US Ambassador to Egypt). This is the guest list from Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p.350:

The invitees' identifications: the Americans: Presidential aide/friend/adviser Harry Hopkins; Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the President; US Ambassador to Great Britain John Gordon Winant; US Ambassador to Turkey Laurence Steinhardt; US Ambassador to the USSR W Averell Harriman; US Ambassador (Minister) to Egypt Alexander C. Kirk (in whose villa Roosevelt was staying); Maj. Gen. Edwin "Pa" Watson, friend, crony, and Appointments Secretary to FDR; Rear Admiral Wilson Btrown, FDR's Naval Aide; Rear Admiral Ross T. McIntire, personal physician to FDR; Col. Elliott Roosevelt, the President's son; Major John Boettiger, husband of Anna Roosevelt and the President's son-in-law; Harry Hopkins' son Robert Hopkins.

The Churchill party: Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden; Churchill's personal physician Lord Moran; John Martin, Churchill's personal secretary; Commander Charles R. "Tommy" Thompson, Churchill's aide-de-camp; "Mrs. Oliver" is Churchill's daughter Sarah, the only woman along, who was serving in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).

For the dinner, there are several reminiscences, including this one from FDR's personal diary in his own hand, from the FDR Library:

Fri Nov 26
Yesterday was a real Thanksgiving Day. The Chiangs to tea -- had the [next word unclear?] British to dinner - WSC - Sara - Etc. with 2 Turkeys I brought from home. It is an enormous satisfaction to have my mess crew from the Potomac and Shangri-La. Music by an Army band and later WSC cakewalked with Pa Watson.
Today I have wound up all that we accomplished

The Potomac was FDR's Presidential yacht. Shangri-La was the retreat now known as Camp David.

Here is Churchill's version from The Second World War, Volume V, Closing the Ring, pp. 340-341 of the American edition:

Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November, is a feature in American life. Every soldier in in th American Army is supposed to eat turkey on that day, and most of them did in1943. Ample supplies of turkeys for all the United States Staffs at Cairo had been brought out in the President's ship. Roosevelt invited me to join him at dinner in his villa. "Let us make it a family affair," he said. So Sarah was asked too, and also "Tommy" (Commander Thompson), to whom he had taken a great liking. The President's guests included his personal circle, his son Elliott, his son-in-law Mr. Boettinger, and Harry Hopkins and his son Robert. We had a pleasant and peaceful feast. Two enormous turkeys were brought in with all ceremony. The president, propped up high in his chair, carved for all with masterly, indefatigable skill. As we were above twenty, this took a long time, and those who were helped first had finished before the President had cut anything for himelf. As I watched the  huge platefuls he distributed to the company I feared that he might be left with nothing at all. But he had calculated to a nicety, and I was relieved, when at last the two skeletons were removed, to see him set about his om share. Harry, who had noted my anxiety, said, "We have ample reserves.'' Speeches were made of warm and intimate friendship. For a couple of hours we cast care aside, I had never seen the President more gay. After the meal was over we returned to the big room in which we had held so many conferences. Dance music — from gramophone records —  began ta play. Sarah was the only woman present, and she had her work cut out, so I danced with "Pa" Watson (Roosevelt's trusted old friend and aide), to the delight of his chief, who watched us from the sofa. This jolly evening and the spectacle of the President carving up the turkeys stand out in my mind among the most agreeable features of the halt at Cairo.

Roosevelt told the story of Thanksgiving to the British and he and Churchill exchanged toasts. At 9:30 Gen. Joseph Stilwell (US Commander in the China theater) arrived for a meeting with FDR. He was greeted by Harry Hopkins. Stilwell found the party still going strong and many of the guests already drunk, including Hopkins, so Stilwell talked with Churchill (who had an enormous capacity) until the guests left at 10:30, when Stilwell met with FDR.

There was another party that night, held by the American and British Combined Chiefs of Staff. General H.H. "Hap" Arnold, head of the US Army Air Forces describes it as a "merry party, tells an anecdote or two, on p. 463 of his memoir Global Mission, and notes that the chiefs then attended a special service put on by the British for the Americans at the Anglican Cathedral in Cairo. FRUS nites that there are no details on where or at what time the dinner was held. The Chiefs were mstly stayinbg at Mena House and it may may be been there; the cathedral then was on the corniche in Cairo, where it stood until torn donn in1978 for the new October 6 bridge,  so this would seem to suggest the dinner was in late afternoon or early evening.

First Cairo Conference Part III: Newreels of the Cairo and Tehran Conferences

Continuing my series on the three summits in Cairo and Tehran and Cairo again in November-December 1943, 70 years ago: I'll be discussing FDR's Thanksgiving dinner for Churchill later today. Meanwhile here are some period newsreels of the First Cairo and Tehran Conferences. (More on Tehran is coming up tomorrow.)

The two-part video below starts with a newsreel about the two conferences, then goes on to include Roosevelt's own report in his Christmas address to the Armed Forces, which is continued in the second video.



This one from the FDR Presidential Library has no narration but lots of scenes of Cairo and Tehran as well as the leaders:

The Great Powers Gather at Mena House: 70 Years Since the First Cairo Conference, Part I

Chiang, FDR, Churchill, Madame Chiang in Cairo

Unless you spent the day in a coma or an alien solar system, you know that today was he 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. But this November 22 (late as this post is) marks another anniversary as well: November 22, 1943, 70 years ago, was the first day of the First Cairo Conference, the first in a string of three World War II summits one after the other, all involving Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill: First Cairo (Churchill, FDR, China's Chiang Kai-shek), Tehran (Churchill, FDR, Stalin), and Second Cairo (Churchill, FDR, and Turkish President İsmet İnönü). Though all were held in Middle Eastern cities, they were, like the Casablanca Conference earlier in the same year, in but largely not of the region or even about it.  Of the three, only the third actually addressed an issue substantively involving the Middle East (attempting to persuade İnönü to bring Turkey into the War on the Allied side).

As I did with the earlier summit in Casablanca, this will be the first of a number of posts about First Cairo, followed by discussions of the two subsequent conferences, over the couple of weeks to come. This first post sets the scene and context of the summit. Subsequent posts will deal with why King Farouq did not meet the foreign leaders (whereas FDR hosted a dinner for Sultan Muhammad V at Casablanca) (hint: Farouq was in the hospital, but that is a tale of its own worth retelling in the next post), followed by details of the proceedings, including FDR's hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for the attendees.

Meanwhile this post will introduce the setting, context, and dramatis personae.

The reasons for having three summits rather than one were diplomatic. With the invasion of Europe looming in 1944, Roosevelt had never yet met with Soviet Premier/General Secretary Stalin. Stalin had missed Casablanca because the Battle of Stalingrad was still under way. Roosevelt Churchill and their military staffs had also not held a full-scale conference on the strategy against Japan.

Meanwhile, after a mostly-forgotten border war in 1939 (known to Japan as Nomonhan and the Russians as Khalkhyn-gol) along the Russian-Manchurian-Mongolian border areas, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Japan at the time of the German invasion in 1941. Accordingly, unlike his British and American allies, Stalin was not at war with Japan. As a result, he chose not to attend the Cairo summit, mostly devoted to the war against Japan and including Chiang Kai-shek (Stalin was of course a supporter of the Chinese Communists, though they were in a truce with the Nationalists to fight the common Japanese enemy.). So it was decided to split the Cairo Conference (codenamed SEXTANT) from the one with Stalin in Tehran (EUREKA). first Cairo Conference ran from November 22-26; Tehran from November 28-December 1, and Second Cairo December 4-6. Roosevelt brought Ambassador Harriman, a trusted friend, down from Moscow to interpret Russian intentions. Russia sent no official delegate for the reasons stated, but its Assistant Foreign Minister Andrei Vishynsky was in town en route to Algiers to join an Allied commission on post-Mussolini Italy, and did take the opportunity to make courtesy calls on the principals.

The inclusion of Chiang was at Roosevelt's insistence. He was seeking to build up Chiang's image as an ally against Japan. Roosevelt was also much more determined to push the British to do more in the China-Burma-India ("CBI) Theater. Churchill was clearly unhappy (even in his memoirs after the war) with the American focus on Chiang. To Churchill, Britain's interests in Asia were the recovery of Hong Kong and Singapore (and Malaya) from Japan, and the protection of India (the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire) against Japanese invasion. To him, the war in Burma was to protect India; to the US, it was a bridge via the Burma Road to supply Chiang.  (Fortunately for both countries, the British had one of their very best generals in the war, William Slim, in Burma, though Churchill underestimated him).

You may note, above, that the photo above includes not only the three leaders but also, seated alongside them, Madame Chiang Kai-shek (Soong Mei-ling), while Eleanor Roosevelt and Clementine Churchill are not only not in evidence, but were back in Washington and London.

Only one person here speaks no English

Officially, she served as her husband's translator. She was definitely that: she spoke fluent, colloquial and American accented English (having spent some years in Macon, Georgia, it's said she had a pronounced Georgia accent, though she later attended Wellesley), while Chiang, even in his long years in American-protected exile on Taiwan, never bothered to learn any. Note, in the photo at right, that she is chatting up Churchill animatedly while Chiang is staring straight at the camera, perhaps unsure what's going on.

But she was much more. The three Soong sisters married well: one married H.H. Kung, the richest businessman in China; the other became the second wife of Sun Yat-sen, leader of the 1911 Chinese Revolution. The latter remained in China under Mao, rising to senior posts in the Communist Party (mostly for who she was), even while her sister was the First Lady of Taiwan.

While Chiang spoke no English, Madame Chiang was thoroughly Americanized. Raised a Christian in American Methodist missionary schools in China, she studied in the US from 1907 through her graduation from Wellesley in 1917. She was not just the interpreter of Chiang's words but of his ideas, and probably more. Many believed that Chiang, the military officer trained in military schools, speaking only Chinese and largely ignorant of the outside world, was protected by Mei-ling, who filtered out his more naive and ignorant notions from his conversations, Many Westerners were convinced she was the brains of the outfit. Madame Chiang lived until 2003, dying at the age of 105, outliving, well, most everybody (105!). The Soong sisters were formidable, and forgive this long aside, but that's why Madame Chiang is in the photo.

The Venue

Mena House Hotel

The primary venue of the Cairo Conference was the Mena House Hotel at the foot of and just across the road from the pyramids of Giza. It's one of the grand old colonial hotels, a longtime favorite of Churchill's, though he stayed in a private villa and only attended several sessions at the hotel on this trip. The Mena House is a grand old hotel in the British colonial manner, and still operating, though the Indian-owned  Oberoi chain which had run it for several decades ended its ownership in 2012. Currently undergoing renovation and run by Egypt, it is nevertheless still open, according to its website. Though they bill their Churchill Suite online as where he stayed during the Cairo Conference, he was sleeping in a private villa; perhaps he kept this suite for his own use during his private visits, or stayed there on his many other trips.

The View from Mena House

By the testimony of Churchill's own war memoirs, he stayed at a villa. Churchill had sailed from Plymouth in HMS Renown on November 12, not to return to Britain for nearly three months. He stopped in Algiers to meet with Eisenhower and British General Alexander, then sailed on to Malta, where he learned Roosevelt had proposed Khartoum instead of Cairo as less susceptible to air attack. Churchill was having none of that and considered Malta instead (overlooking that it was much more susceptible to air attack than Cairo?) He sailed from Malta on the 19th arrived in Alexandria November 21. From there he flew to "the desert landing ground near the pyramids," (presumably the Cairo West airfield, still a major Egyptian Air Base, and where FDR would land the next morning). He took up residence for the duration at a villa near the pyramids occupied by Richard Gardiner Casey, the British Minister of State Resident in the Middle East (not to be confused with the British Ambassador, Lord Killearn, until recently Sir Miles Lampson).

Chiang Kai-shek was already there. He had left his wartime capital at Chungking on November 18 and was already in  Cairo by the 21st, staying at a villa a half mile from Churchill's, though I'm unclear about his air route from Chungking to Cairo (obviously not nonstop) or in whose villa he stayed.

Roosevelt for his part sailed on November 13 from Hampton Roads (Norfolk), Virginia, on the new  USS Iowa, lead ship on a new US battleship class and only just commissioned earlier in 1943. (She was only finally decommissioned in 1990. She was the only battleship to have both a bathtub and an elevator aboard, both added specifically for FDR.  On the second day out there was a tricky moment during a submarine drill when an American destroyer, USS William D. Porter, mistakenly launched a torpedo towards the Iowa, which thankfully was able to outmaneuver the torpedo. Almost accidentally sinking the Navy's newest battleship would be bad enough; at least at the time the escort ships did not yet know that the President was aboard. That didn't last long: for the first time (Note in US Navy history, the entire officers and crew of the  Porter were placed under arrest).

Having survived what may be the ultimate "oops" moment, the Iowa sailed on while the Porter crew were hauled off to Bermuda. On November 20, Iowa arrived at Mers el-Kebir, the naval base at Oran in Algeria. Roosevelt then flew on in his favorite C-54 (military version of the DC-3), dubbed the "Sacred Cow," to Tunis, where he met with his sons Elliot and FDR Jr., serving in the theater, and toured the Tunisian battlefields.

Then the President flew on to Cairo. The second plane in the President's party arrived at Cairo West some two and a half hours before the President's plane (which the official log shows as landing at 9:35 AM). Two groups of fighter escorts scheduled to accompany the plane never saw it, and there was obviously conceen about the President's safety. In fact the :President's plane had dropped southward to around 28 degeees of latitude, intercepting the Nile well south of Cairo, and finally following the Nile Valley northward, bringing the President in right over the pyramids and Sphinx.

Roosevelt's villa belonged to the then US Ambassador to Cairo, Alexander C. Kirk, known for his elegance of style, rich taste in interior decorating, but not apparently for his diplomatic skills. Egypt was not a major US interest.

We now have the dramatis personae assembled.  Enjoy your weekend and we'll tell more stories on Monday.

France Belatedly (as in 70 Years Late) Honors Moroccan Troops Who Fougtht to Liberate Corsica

Hmm . . . first I note the passing of the mastermind of Dien Bien Phu, and now here's another reminder of the former French Empire: "Overdue 'merci' extended to Morocco WWII vets." (Also see France 24 video in English, not embeddable, at this link.)

Seventy years ago today marked the completion of the liberation of Corsica from the Axis by Free French Forces.  As I have noted before, there was a substantial North African colonial presence in the Free French ranks.  Corsica was liberated by the Free French I Army Corps. According to Wikipedia, this was its Order of Battle:

While British and American troops invaded mainland Italy in September 1943, the 1st Army Corps, comprising Headquarters, 4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4^e DMM), the 1st Regiment of Moroccan Tirailleurs (1^er RTM), the 4th Regiment of Moroccan Spahis (4^e RSM) (light tank), the 2nd Group of Moroccan Tabors (2^e GTM), the Commandos de Choc battalion and the 3rd Battalion, 69th Mountain Artillery Regiment (69^e RAM),^[9] landed on the island of Corsica in the same month.

A very heavy Moroccan participation, in other words. The French President and the Moroccan King are honoring several survivors of the Corsican operation with the Legion of Honor, though the France 24 says only about 2% of the Moroccan troops who fought in the war are still living.

A footnote about the word goumier, by which the Moroccan troops were known: France organized its colonial forces into goums (from Arabic qom  قوم); a 200-;man body of troops; hence goumiers.

70 Years Ago: US Disaster at Kasserine Pass in Tunisia

Previous posts about the 70th anniversary of the North African campaign have seemed fairly straightforward; the American landings in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) faced limited resistance from Vichy French forces, which soon came around to the point that Roosevelt and Churchill could meet in Casablanca.

But however easy Morocco and Algeria had been, Tunisia was to prove a different matter entirely, where the opponent would be not Vichy but th4e Wehrmacht. After the Torch landings the Germans had sent General von Arnim's Vth Panzer Army to Tunisia; as the British Eighth Army under Montgomery advanced westward after the victory at El Alamein and took Tripoli, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel fell back to a fortified line known as the Mareth Line in southern Tunisia. Tunisia had become a fortified bastion of the Afrika Corps.

US Infantry in Kasserine Pass

The US Army, though already tested in the Pacific, had not yet met the Germans in battle in this war. The British had doubts about the Americans' readiness to fight. The first test came at Kasserine Pass in the Tunisian Atlas. It would be a disaster.

Early clashes at Faid and Sidi Bouzid showed the German Panzers were far better armed than the light American tanks; poorly led and poorly trained infantry and vulnerability of the tanks led to a US withdrawal to the line of the Western Dorsale.

On February 19, 70 years ago today, Rommel struck the Americans in an attempt to break through Kasserine Pass and penetrate into Algeria. British, American, and Free French troops were all engaged along the front, with the US holding the pass.

After several days of running battle with allied forces falling back several times, Rommel ultimately found himself blocked and fell back. But the Allies had been poorly led and failed to coordinate well; the US troops probed ill-equipped and under-trained, and though the Germans failed to break through into Algeria, the lsses tell the story: 10,000 Allied casualties, 6,500 of them American (German and Italian casualties were around 2,000); the loss of 183 Allied tanks to only 34 German tanks, etc.

Though British Lt. Gen. Kenneth Anderson had overall command of the Allied forces, US II Corps commander Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall received most of the blame. He was sent home to take over a training command in the US (though poor training was already an issue) and did not hold any further combat command.

Those who have seen the 1970 film Patton may recall that in one of the opening scenes, Omar Bradley visits the battlefield at Kasserine. After Fredendall's relief, he was replaced by George S. Patton, who had been in Morocco, socializing with the Sultan and wishing for  a fight. Before March was over, Patton would beat a German force at El Guettar. Montgomery and 8th Army pushed through the Mareth lines, and a reorganized and revitalized Allied command structure reversed the disasters at Kasserine. Tunis fell in May.

Franklin and Winston's Excellent Road Trip: Churchill and FDR Overnight in Marrakesh

Churchill Showing FDR the Sunset at Marrakesh

As I noted in my post yesterday on the closing of the Casablanca Conference 70 years ago, as soon as the morning press conference was over, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt set out on an overnight excursion to Marrakesh. Churchill had loved to visit Marrakesh to paint before the war, and wanted to show the always fascinating city to his American counterpart. Let Churchill begin the tale (sources for the quotes at the bottom of the post):

The President prepared to depart. But I said to him, "You cannot go all this way to North Africa without seeing Marrakech. Let us spend two days there. I must be with you when you see the sunset on the snows of the Atlas Mountains." I worked on Harry Hopkins also in this sense. It happened there was a most delightful villa, of which I knew nothing, at Marrakech which the American Vice-Consul, Mr. Kenneth Pendar, had been lent by an American lady, Mrs. Taylor. This villa would accommodate the President and me, and there was plenty of outside room for our entourages. So it was decided that we should all go to Marrakech. 

Churchill writes as if it was spontaneous but since the villa had been arranged and US troops lined the road for 150 miles, one presumes some pre-planning.

Roosevelt and I drove together the one hundred and fifty miles across the desert — it seemed to me to be beginning to get greener — and reached the famous oasis. My description of Marrakech was — "the Paris of the Sahara," where all the caravans had come from Central Africa for centuries to be heavily taxed en route by the tribes in the mountains and afterwards swindled in the Marrakech markets, receiving the return, which they greatly valued, of the gay life [not what it means today —MCD] of the city, including fortune-tellers, snake-charmers, masses of food and drink, and on the whole the largest and most elaborately organised brothels [exactly what it means today —MCD] in the African continent. All these institutions were of long and ancient  repute.

It was agreed between us that I should provide the luncheon, and Tommy was accordingly charged with the task. The President and I drove together all the way, five hours, and talked a great deal of shop, but also touched on lighter matters. Many thousand American troops were posted along the road to protect us from any danger, and aeroplanes circled ceaselessly overhead . . .

Averell Harriman,who was along for the excursion, remembered the road trip this way (his memoirs refer to himself in the third person):

As soon as the press conference was over, the two were off to Marrakesh with Hopkins and Harriman, the Prime Minister's son Randolph, Hopkins' son Robert, Admiral [Ross T.] McIntire [Roosevelt's personal physician] and an entourage of aides. It was a four-hour drive of 150 miles through the desert, the dusty road lined with American soldiers standing at attention while fighter planes swept overhead. The British had prepared a picnic lunch of hard-boiled eggs, sandwiches and mince pies to eat along the way. 

If Harriman remembered the details of the lunch, Harry Hopkins remembered the alcohol in his diary:

At 1.15 we drove to Marrakesh — picnic lunch on the way. Everyone tired but relaxed. As the British had fixed up the lunch we had plenty of wine and Scotch.

Churchill continues the tale:

In the evening we arrived at the villa, where we were very hospitably and suitably entertained by Mr. Pendar. I took the President up the tower of the villa. He was carried in a chair, and sat enjoying a wonderful sunset on the snows of the Atlas. [See the photo at top.]  We had a very jolly dinner, about fifteen or sixteen, and we all sang songs. I sang, and the President joined in the choruses, and at one moment was about to try a solo. However, someone interrupted and I never heard this.

Hopkins and others at least visited the town, including what anyone who has seen Marrakesh will recognize as the Djemaa al-Fnaa':

We were put up at the villa of the late Moses Taylor — very pleasant. Our host was a young archaeologist named Pendar (Louise had once rented his flat in Paris) — he was one of our secret agents in N. Africa prior to the landings. Averell [Harriman], Randolph [Churchill], Robert [Hopkins, Harry’s son] and I went to visit a big fair — storytellers — dancers — snake-charmers — and 15,000 natives. Very colorful. The great trading market was near — but nothing much to sell — tho thousands ever milling thru. Dinner was good — army style — company aglow — much banter — Churchill at his best.

Harriman remembered more about the dinner conversation that evening:

At dinner that evening in the extraordinarily beautiful Moorish house of Mrs. Moses Taylor, then occupied by Kenneth Pendar, one of [Robert] Murphy's special agents, there were speeches, songs and toasts. Pendar took the head of the table, seating Roosevelt on his right and Churchill on his left. Harriman sat beside Roosevelt, and Hopkins next to Churchill.

It was the President's habit to shift gears conversationally when he preferred not to discuss weighty matters. This time he expounded to Pendar and Harriman his views about independence for Morocco on the Philippine pattern. He talked of compulsory education, of fighting disease through immunization and of birth control. "Occasionally," Harriman noted, "the P.M. interjected a pessimistic-and realistic-note. He doesn't like the new ideas but accepts them as inevitable."

Here again, as in their disagreements over India, Roosevelt and Churchill did not march to the same drumbeat. The Prime Minister made no secret of his determination to preserve the British Empire, although he knew that would be difficult. Roosevelt enjoyed thinking aloud on the tremendous changes he saw ahead-the end of colonial empires and the rise of newly independent nations across the sweep of Africa and Asia. "I felt his objectives were right," Harriman said. "I think he had a belief that his prestige, both personally and as President of the United States, was so great that he could influence the trend. He recognized the rise of nationalism among the colonial peoples. He also recognized that Churchill was pretty much a nineteenth century colonialist. So he said some of these things partly to jar Churchill but also from a fundamental belief that the old order could not last. All this was surely in Churchill's mind when he later said that he had not become Prime Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire."

Throughout this, their final evening together, Churchill kept looking for an opportunity to talk privately with Roosevelt. But the seating arrangement, to Churchill's great annoyance, made a tete-a-tete impossible. "Roosevelt rather liked the idea," Harriman recalled, "that he did not have to go through with this talk. He always enjoyed other people's discomfort. I think it is fair to say that it never bothered him very much when other people were unhappy."

Harriman had earlier hinted that Churchill wanted to discuss further the "unconditional surrender" term decided at Casablanca.

Pendar, the American Vice-Consul and an archaeologist as well as one of Robert Murphy's agents in Vichy North Africa before the Torch  landings, was living in the Villa Taylor, owned by the widow of Moses Taylor of Rhode Island. Legend has it that when Mrs. Taylor, a staunch Republican, learned FDR had stayed in her villa, she resolved never to stay there again.

Hopkins and Harriman stayed up well past midnight drafting cables for Stalin and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek about the Casablanca decisions.  Roosevelt was to fly back to Casablanca; Churchill was to stay on in Marrakesh a few days. Churchill remembered:

My illustrious colleague was to depart just after dawn on the 25th for his long flight by Lagos and Dakar and so across to Brazil and then up to Washington. We had parted the night before, but he came round in the morning on the way to the aeroplane to say another good-bye. I was in bed, but would not hear of letting him go to the airfield alone, so I jumped up and put on my zip [often referred to as his "siren suit'], and nothing else except slippers, and in this informal garb I drove with him to the airfield, and went on the plane and saw him comfortably settled down, greatly admiring his courage under all his physical disabilities and feeling very anxious about the hazards he had to undertake. These aeroplane journeys had to be taken as a matter of course during the war. None the less I always regarded them as dangerous excursions. However all was well. I then returned to the Villa Taylor, where I spent another two days in correspondence with the War Cabinet about my future movements, and painting from the tower the only picture I ever attempted during the war. 

The trip had occupied the afternoon of January 24 through the morning of January 25, 70 years ago.

Sources for the quotations above:

Winston S. Churchill, The Hinge of Fate,(Vol. IV of The Second World War, 1950), US Edition, pp. 694-695.
W. Averell Harriman and Elie Abel, Special Envoy to Hitler and Stalin, 1941-1946,  (1975), pp. 191-192.
Robert E. Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (based on Harry Hopkins' papers), (1948), p. 694.

January 24, 1943: The Casablanca Conference Ends with an Awkward Handshake

A number of times this month I've posted about the 1943 Casablanca Conference which took place 70 years ago. Today marks the day it ended. The conference had accomplished a number of things: allowed for extensive US-British military planning, including the decision to invade Sicily when the war in North Africa was over; issued a declaration that the Allies were fighting for the "unconditional surrender" of the Axis (which became controversial); and brought about a working (barely) relationship between the two rival French generals, each with huge Gallic egos, Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle.

As the Conference ended — cloaked in secrecy due to the presence of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill — the press was flown down from Allied HQ in Algiers for the first time, and were startled to discover the two allied leaders were in Morocco. There were photo opportunities with the President, the Prime Minister, and the two French leaders:

Giraud, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Churchill at Casablanca

More famous by far than that photo, however, is the clearly uncomfortable one of the (forced, and after considerable US pressure on Giraud and British pressure on de Gaulle) handshake between Giraud and de Gaulle:

This version of Casablanca did not end with "the beginning of a beautiful friendship"; the two French generals could not stand each other. But Giraud was favored by the Americans, though de Gaulle had sometimes reluctant support from Churchill. Giraud outranked de Gaulle and had disagreed with his theories of tank warfare; while de Gaulle deferred to his higher rank, he worked to undermine him until he emerged as the victor by early 1944. The handshake is visibly uncomfortable. I suspect it will remind many Middle East hands of another handshake, the one at the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993:

Or perhaps this awkward handshake in Italy in 2009:

After the end of the news conference/photo op, Churchill, who loved Marrakesh and frequently went there to paint, took Roosevelt off to the Moroccan desert city for an overnight jaunt to show his American colleague its beauty. But that's a tale in its own right, and will be one of my posts tomorrow.

The Moroccans at the Casablanca Conference: the Sultan Dines with FDR and Churchill: Did FDR Support Moroccan Independence?

In my post yesterday on the 70th anniversary of the Casablanca Conference, I said that it was "in, but not of" Morocco, and that Moroccans were excluded from the  bubble in which it took place. That was not of course, 100% true: Morocco was a French Protectorate, not a colony, and its ruler was technically Sultan (later King) Mohammed V (Muhammad V). (I've posted previously about General George S. Patton's impressions of the Sultan.) Ceremonially speaking, at least, he was the host of the Conference (though not involved in the negotiations), and on January 22, President Franklin Roosevelt hosted a banquet in honor of the nominal host. (But read on: there's some evidence FDR was sending an anti-colonial message to the French by hosting the Sultan) Photos of this event seem few and far between, and this is the only one I could find, but it shows most of the key players and offers a good introduction to talking about the banquet.

On the couch: Sultan Mohammed V, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Back row from left: Gen. George S. Patton (US Military Commander in Morocco), Robert Murphy (US diplomatic representative in French North Africa), Harry Hopkins (Roosevelt aide and personal friend), Moroccan Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (future King Hassan II, then 13), General Charles Noguès (French Governor-General of Morocco), the Moroccan Chief of Protocol, the Moroccan Grand Vizier, Lt. Col. Elliott Roosevelt (the President's son), Roosevelt's Naval Aide Captain John L. McCrea.

General Patton's diary offers one memory of the evening:

At dinner  . . .  President, Sultan, Protocol, self, Crown Prince. Elliott Roosevelt, Nogues, Hopkins, Murphy. Grand Vizier, Churchill. No wine, only orange juice and water. Churchill was very rude, the President was great, talking volubly in bad French and really doing his stuff. After dinner we had [motion] pictures and more talk . . .

I rode with Sultan and Grand Vizier to house of latter. On way Sultan said, "Truly your President is a very great man and a great friend of myself and of my people. He shines by comparison with the other one."[presumably Churchill] . . .

Nogues was delighted that the P.M. was such a boor. [The Patton Papers. Vol. II. p. 158]

General Noguès, by the way, was a Vichy holdover who had vacillated so much in negotiation with the Americans that General Eisenhower reportedly referred to him as "General No-Yes."

Harry Hopkins' notes add some color:

The Sultan arrived at 7:40, which caused me to put on my black tie for the first time on this trip. He had expressed a desire to see the President alone prior to Churchill's arrival at eight, and he came loaded with presents — a gold dagger for the President, and some gold bracelets for Mrs Roosevelt, and a gold tiara which looked to me like the kind the gals wear in the circus, riding on white horses. I can just see Mrs. Roosevelt when she takes a look at this. The Sultan wore white silk robes. Apparently the etiquette prohibits the drinking of liquor publicly, so we had nothing alcoholic either before, during, or after dinner. I fortified myself an hour earlier, however.

Also, no part of a pig may be eaten, and the Sultan didn't smoke. He had a young son there with a red fez on, which he kept on while eating. He was a kid about thirteen who seemed quite bright. [Moulay Hassan: the future King Hassan II, reigned 1961-1999.]

. . . Churchill was glum at dinner and seemed to be real bored. . .The President gave the Sultan his picture in a handsome silver frame.  and a good time seemed to be had by all, except the Prime Minister. [Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, 689-690]

Churchill had apparently just met with de Gaulle; that, combined with the absence of alcohol and tobacco (which Churchill normally considered essentials at dinner), might explain his mood, as our next quote also suggests.Though Churchill's massive six volume memoir of the war is far more extensive than other memoirs, I find no mention in it of the dinner at all.

The Patton and Hopkins anecdotes give us lots of color and Orientalist exoticism. Robert Murphy, writing many years later in his 1964 memoir,  Diplomat Among Warriors,  offers a very different, anti-colonialist spin:

The evening of the day De Gaulle arrived in Casablanca, just before he and Roosevelt were to meet with each other for the first time, the President gave a dinner in honor of the Sultan of Morocco. This affair was entirely Roosevelt's own idea. He had not forgotten the reluctance of General Nogues to deliver his letter to the Sultan at the time of the landings, and one of the first things the President asked me to do was to arrange an intimate little dinner at his villa. The Sultan was accompanied by his eldest son, and the other guests were Nogues — who was invited as the Sultan's Foreign Minister under the French Protectorate — Churchill, Macmillan, Marshall, Patton, Hopkins, Elliott Roosevelt, and me. [Other memoirs don't mention George C. Marshall's or Macmillan's presence, nor is he in the photo. Harold Macmillan might have been left out but it's unlikely Marshall would not have been in the photo when his subordinate Patton was, nor can I find any evidence in his biographies that he attended.] In deference to the Sultan's Moslem code of behavior, no alcoholic beverages of any kind were served before, during, or after the dinner. Perhaps it was this rare abstinence which caused the British Prime Minister to be unnaturally glum throughout the evening, or perhaps he remained silent because he regarded the whole occasion as deliberately provocative.

The President began the serious conversation by expressing sympathy with colonial aspirations for independence, and soon he was proposing to the Sultan that arrangements should be made after the war for American-Moroccan economic co-operation. Nogues, who had devoted his career to fortifying the French position in Morocco, could not conceal his outraged feelings. Hopkins observed that Nogues seemed to be uneasy "because he knows we may throw him out any minute." I suggested to Hopkins, "Perhaps the President’s approaches to the Sultan also aggravate Nogues’s fears about American designs on the French Empire. From the point of view of any imperialist — including De Gaulle and Churchill— the President’s conversation with the Sultan could seem subversive." With an impatient shrug, Hopkins changed the subject.

Of course, De Gaulle's informants told him about the President's overtures to the Sultan. and this increased the General's distrust of Roosevelt. Although it was De Gaulle, and not the Americans, who eventually threw Nogues out of his position in Morocco, De Gaulle saw eye to eye with Nogues on what De Gaulle has described as Roosevelt's "insinuations" to the Sultan. De Gaulle recorded in his memoirs that the Sultan remained loyal to France in spite of Roosevelt's interference . . . (Diplomat Among Warriors, 172-173)

The Sultan would be deposed later, not by de Gaulle. and then returned to power and be elevated to King on Moroccan independence. Though ignored by diarists at the time, Roosevelt's probing the Sultan for future post-colonial relations is characteristic of his known attitudes.

[An editorial addendum since I'm an editor and all: I've kept all spellings as in the original. None of the Americans put the accent on Noguès (though the "General No-Yes" joke only makes sense if you pronounce it Noguès), and Murphy insists on "De Gaulle" rather than the more correct "de Gaulle."]

The Casablanca Conference Convenes

Casablanca 1943: Behind FDR and Churchill are the Combined [US-UK] Chiefs of Staff: US Army Air Forces Chief Hap Arnold, Admiral Ernie King, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall; British First Sea Lord Fleet Admiral Sir Dudley Pound;  Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir  Charles Portal (later Viscount Portal of Hungerford); Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sir Alan Brooke (later Viscount Alanbrooke); and Chief of Combined Operations Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten (later Earl Mountbatten of Burma)

I've already foreshadowed the 70th anniversary of the Casablanca Conference in a couple of recent posts. 

Today marks the beginning of the Conference in the Anfa resort area on January 14, 1943. The Conference was in, but very much not of (or about), Morocco. Sultan Muhammad V was not among the participants. It was essentially an Anglo-American summit with a French subtext, as the Allies sought to reconcile the two hostile figures seeking to lead the French abroad: Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud. But the main purpose was to allow the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the UK and US to meet in purpose, as well as FDR and Churchill. Stalin had also been invited, but in late 1942 the Red Army had broken through at Stalingrad and surrounded the German VIth Army Group, which was now starving and cut off but ordered by Hitler to fight to the last man. Stalin felt he couldn't travel.

Some video:

 

The Conference is mainly remembered today for the US-British insistence on "unconditional surrender" by the Axis (which would cause some problems later on), and for the de Gaulle-Giraud meeting, shown in the photos at bottom, which I'll blog more about later as it occurred at the end of the Conference. It was the first Roosevelt trip abroad (excluding Canada) while in office and the first by any US President during wartime. It was also the first of the summits to be held in the Middle East (Cairo and Tehran would follow). Like them, it took place in a bubble isolated from the Moroccans all around it.

Giraud, FDR, de Gaulle, Churchill

Stiff handshake: Giraud meeting de Gaulle

January 11, 1943: FDR Leaves for North Africa

FDR aboard the Dixie Clipper on return flight from
Casablanca, toasting his 61st birthday (Jan 30, 1943)

January 11, 1943: Seventy years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt prepared to become the first US President to leave North America during wartime. He was also about to become the first sitting US President to visit the Arab world, although he would have thought of it as French North Africa. (Ulysses S. Grant had visited Egypt after his Presidency, as had Teddy Roosevelt, who'd also been there as a young man on a world tour, but no President had gone while in office.) (If I've missed any Presidents leave a comment.)

On  New Year's Eve, I noted how FDR had enjoyed an inside joke by showing his guests the film Casablanca, though the imminent Casablanca Conference was of course a tightly held secret, since the President, Winston Churchill, and all the US and UK Chiefs of Staff would be crossing an ocean full of German U-boats and meeting in a city that had been controlled by Vichy only weeks before.

A Pan Am Clipper

The trip itself was roundabout and difficult. Roosevelt took his train to Miami, Florida, where they met two Boeing 314 Clipper flying boats on loan from Pan Am. Roosevelt used the Dixie Clipper,which had been the first to provide regularly scheduled commercial trans-Atlantic air service in 1939. His closest advisers traveled with him, while the rest of the party boarded the sister ship, the Atlantic Clipper. On the 11th, the two planes flew to Trinidad. Admiral William Leahy, Roosevelt's personal Chief of Staff, who had been US Ambassador to Vichy and was needed for his expertise on France, stayed behind in Trinidad with a fever from influenza. The planes flew the next day to Belem, Brazil, then crossed the Atlantic to Bathurst (now Banjul) in Gambia (then a British colony). They dined aboard the USS Memphis, which was in port. From there a military C-54 flew the party to Casablanca.

Roosevelt, who had not flown for some years, was having a grand time. According to Harry Hopkins, who traveled with him:

I sat with him, strapped him in, as the plane rose from the water — and he acted like a sixteen-year-old, for he had done no flying since he was President.

Hopkins also noted that they served cocktails aboard the Clipper.

Next week, I'll discuss the anniverserary of the Casablanca Conference in greater detail.

Roosevelt reviews troops in Morocco