- Arcadia Conference
The First Washington Conference also known as the Arcadia Conference (ARCADIA was the
code name used for the conference), was held inWashington, D.C. fromDecember 22 ,1941 toJanuary 14 ,1942 . It was the first strategic meeting between the heads of government of theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States after the United States enteredWorld War II . The delegations were headed by the British Prime Minister,Winston Churchill , and the American PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt .Although Roosevelt was under some domestic pressure to concentrate the United States war effort on Japan because of the
attack on Pearl Harbor a couple of weeks earlier onDecember 7 , the United States government agreed that to win the war, the prime objective was the defeat ofNazi Germany (Europe first strategy).Adolf Hitler 's declaration of war on the United States onDecember 11 ,1941 , [ [http://www.quotedb.com/speeches/hitler-declaration-war-on-us hitler-declaration-war-on-us Adolf Hitler's decleration of war on the United States] ] made this decision more politically acceptable to opinion in the United States than it would otherwise have been.It was also agreed at the conference to combine military resources under one command in the
European Theater of Operations (ETO).ee also
*
Washington Conference
*List of World War II conferences
*U.S.-British Staff Conference (ABC-1) - the staff meeting that laid the groundwork for this political meeting.References and notes
References
Further reading
* Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell. Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare 1941-1942. Washington, Office of the Chief of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1953-59. The ARCADIA Conference is covered in [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/Sp1941-42/chapter5.htm Chapter V] and [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/Sp1941-42/chapter6.htm Chapter VI]
* [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/confer.html Conferences of the Allied Grand Strategy] from University of San Diego Department of History [http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html World War II Timeline]
* [http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272953&day=10272966 This Day in History January 1] - The History Channel
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