President & Prime Minister

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, no men to let a beetle-browed Nazi named Hess run off with the title of Mystery Man of World War II, last week presented the world with the deepest, juiciest, most momentous mystery since the war began.

Both men disappeared. The President went off on his yacht Potomac with Commander of the Atlantic Fleet Admiral Ernest King. The Potomac promptly began sending out meaningless, innocent, provocative communiques. The Prime Minister simply vanished. From London also vanished Franklin Roosevelt's Man Friday, Harry Hopkins. No longer in Washington, or anywhere anybody could find them, were Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of The Air Forces' Major General Henry H. Arnold, Assistant Secretary of War Robert Porter Patterson. No longer at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, said luncheon-table gossip in New York, was the Navy's new battleship, North Carolina.

Not a soul in London or Washington would tell, if he knew, whether the two chiefs of state had met somewhere at sea. Most shrewd guessers guessed that they had. They imagined the meeting somewhat as follows:

Scene I: Somewhere off the Atlantic Coast the Potomac is hove to in a light swell. A big grey war vessel comes over the horizon. Franklin Roosevelt is taken to it. The warship sets its course to the northeast.

Scene II: Many hours to the east the warship slows its pace. Another warship appears--this one British. The President, on deck, watches a small boat coming near, recognizes from pictures the squat figure in the sea cape, the cherubic face under a white yachting cap.

Scene III: The two men face each other on deck. Franklin Roosevelt's cigaret is burning brightly at the end of his long holder. Winston Churchill's long black cigar, crooked between his fingers, has gone out. The two men shake hands gravely, then the President makes a crack.

Scene IV: Across a table on which maps are spread the two men face each other again. They measure each other, and each measures his own stature, comparing it to the other's, trying to see himself through the eyes of history. The President for a moment remembers cares he came away to forget: the limping defense program, the mounting criticism at home (see p. 27). The Prime Minister feels more secure in the affections of his people; he knows they believe him irreplaceable. Yet he, too, is conscious of shortcomings. He knows he has been too quick-tempered of late, too impatient of domestic problems before the grander strategy of war.

Each knows he has the other in his power. Churchill could come to terms with Germany, Roosevelt could leave Britain fighting alone. Yet for that reason they are dependent on each other, as their countries are mutually dependent. They begin to talk.

They discuss aid to Russia. Because Russia is now fighting the fiercest fight against Hitler, the President has determined that the U.S. should give Russia real and effective aid, even at the cost of diverting some supplies from Britain (see p. 20). With some reluctance the Prime Minister agrees.

They pore over the maps, the generals and admirals standing behind them. Fingers point to the key spots on two continents: to Singapore, toward which the Japanese are already reaching eager, clawing fingers (see p. 20); to Dakar, for which the Germans are equally greedy (see p. 19). These spots must and will be defended, whatever the cost. The questions are: 1) At what point will defense swing into action? 2) What will that action be? For how many hours, for how many days President and Prime Minister discussed the many answers to those questions -- if they were together to discuss them --no one on dry land could say. The states men and the generals and the admirals all must have had their say. But when President and Prime Minister parted -- if they had been together -- they knew the answers. For the first time in World War II the U.S. and Great Britain knew exactly what each would do in every foreseeable circumstance. At that meeting -- if it was held -- the strategy of winning the war for democracy was born.

Scene V: They part at the rail of the ship. Churchill looks thoughtful. Roosevelt looks pleased at the joke he has played on the world.

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