I have just finished reading Friendly Fire (the secret war between the Allies) by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince and Stephen Prior. ISBN 1 840 18 632 1.
In a nutshell, President Roosevelt `planned' and took advantage of the war in Europe to further certain long held ambitions - establishing military bases on British owned territory and boosting America's overseas trade at Britain's expense. initially his idea was to free the world from the Fascist menace by getting Great Britain and France to do the fighting. This would allow the USA to prosper and, at the same time, bleed the Allies dry by decimating their reserves from the purchase of war equipment from his country. For many years our politicians have, from time to time, refferred to our `special relationship' with the USA. This book however reveals that, at least during the last four years of the war any special relationship was certainly between America and Russia. One of F.D.R's main aims was to rid the world of Western European imperialism. The strategy was successful as it is alleged that the USA finished up with fewer deaths than any other belligerent and was the only power to emerge with an economy stronger than when the war was begun. In 1940 America was sliding into another depression with unemployment of 14.6% of the workforce and this was down to under 2% by 1945. No doubt the unemployment figures were also similar in the UK.
It must, of course, be said that Churchill was no slouch at political manoeuvring and did his best to draw the USA into the conflict until Japan did it for him. However, Roosevelt was the architect of the `unconditional surrender' policy which undoubtably prolonged the war and lost thousands of more lives. Even D Day might not have been necessary. FRD had no wish to shorten the war, as it would upset his plans for the division of Europe in which the Soviet Union would hold the balance of power. In the end, to quote the authors, although he `screwed' the British, he was in turn `screwed' by the USSR.
As some one who went through the last war and had tried to keep a beady eye on the political shenanigans I found it a cracking good read. Whilst some of the conclusions may be open to argument, I commend the book as a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the history of the Second World War. I only hope Dubya and his mates don't read it or it may give them ideas.
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