Interesting and timely. Last even on at least the UK version of the history channel there was a documentary about Churchill's decision to attack the French fleet after the surrender. These issues were raised. While I have always known that one effect of the attack was to make FDR realize the British were serious, I did not realize how far against assistance FDR had gone. If the Canadian historian interviewed is to be believed, FDR felt that the message you are all refering to was an attempt to blackmail the US -- FDR would have none of it.
Fearing that Britian was about to collapse, FDR decided against assisting the British and had called in a Canadian diplomat to suggest that the US and Canada look to our own joint defense. The subject of the fleet came up and FDR suggested that the British fleet be turned over to Canada in event of British surrender. PM King's diary recorded his shock as he felt FDR was trying to pry Canada away from the Empire. ------Original Message------ From: Major McKinley To: [email protected] Sent: Oct 20, 2009 5:02 PM Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: Winston Churchill Essay - Help Please I'd look up (and will paste) some items about the Roosevelt administration's attitude towards the war, which required the recall of US Ambassador Joe Kennedy, who saw the bleak situation of the Brits and thought it was hopeless. The most the US hoped for was that when -- they didn't think "if" -- Britain fell, they'd give us (Canada) their fleet. Churchill told FDR that he would go down fighting, but could not guarantee that another government in the UK might not make more favorable terms with the invaders if the Germans came across the Channel, and the biggest chit to play would have been the Royal Navy. If anyone is confident in some well-researched alternative history, perhaps they could recommend it. I think it's such a self-evident Resolved it'll be hard to write. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
