1940's Government and Politics | America at War: The Final Push in Europe

Planning the D-Day Invasion.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill had met regularly since the United States entered the war. Since the inclusion of Russia in the alliance came about essentially as a marriage of convenience, it is not surprising that Russia was not included in strategic planning until midway through the war. Both the United States and Britain had been hostile to the Communist state since its birth in 1917. Some politicians in England and America even believed that their nations should have allied themselves with Germany against Russia. As a senaator in 1940, Harry S Truman had declared, "If we see that Germany is winning then we should help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany,…and let them kill as many as possible." At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill announced demands for the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan,...