American History: A Friendship Helps Guide World War 2 Diplomacy

06 July 2011

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, left, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin in Yalta, Crimea, on February 4, 1945

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember

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History is full of examples of leaders joining together to meet common goals. But rarely have two leaders worked together with as much friendship and cooperation as Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill did. Roosevelt was president of the United States; Churchill was prime minister of Britain. The two men had much in common. They were both born to wealthy families, and they were both active in politics for many years. Both leaders also shared a love of history and nature, and the sea.

Roosevelt and Churchill first met when they were lower-level officials during World War One. But neither man remembered much about that meeting. However, as they worked together during the Second World War, they came to like and trust each other.

Roosevelt and Churchill exchanged more than one thousand seven hundred letters and messages over a period of five and a half years. They met many times, at large international gatherings and in private talks. But the closeness of their friendship might be seen best in a story told by one of Roosevelt's close advisers, Harry Hopkins.