- Pacific War Council
The Pacific War Council was an inter-governmental body established in
1942 and intended to control the Allied war effort in the Pacific and Asian campaigns ofWorld War II .Following the establishment of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian military command (ABDACOM) in January 1942, the governments of
Australia , theNetherlands andNew Zealand began to pushWinston Churchill for an inter-governmental war council based inWashington D.C. The Far Eastern Council was established inLondon onFebruary 9 , with a corresponding staff council in Washington. However the smaller powers continued to push for a Washington-based body.The Pacific War Council was formed in Washington on
April 1 ,1942 , with a membership consisting of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his key advisorHarry Hopkins , and representatives from Britain,China , Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands andCanada . Representatives from India and thePhilippines were later added.Much of the impetus for the council was lost during the collapse of ABDACOM, in March and April. The council never had any direct operational control and any decisions it made were referred to the U.S.-British
Combined Chiefs of Staff , which was also in Washington. Although there were relatively few U.S. forces in the Pacific in mid-1942, the sheer volume of matériel and forces controlled by the United States government soon gave it effective control of strategy in the Pacific War.External links
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a1141958.shtml "Fact File : Formation of the Pacific War Council"] , BBC: WW2 People's War
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