America’s Interest in India: The Reasons for Britain’s Propaganda Campaign

Roosevelt, who has been described as representing mainstream American liberal thought,1 was “in search of monsters to destroy.”2 Colonial empires, particularly the British Empire, were appropriate targets. In his frequently stated anti-colonialism and his pressure on Churchill to grant India selfgovernment, the President pushed the normal boundaries of appropriate intervention in the domestic policy of an ally, and it was suffi ciently intrusive to threaten Britain’s war-related dual agenda focused on maintaining support from the United States and retaining its Empire.