ABSTRACT
The Relationship's strategic basis arose during the Second World War. It developed through a political partnership formed between Churchill and Roosevelt in the two years after Germany attacked Poland. On 11 September, writing to Chamberlain and Churchill, Roosevelt suggested high-level Anglo-American contact: above polite insincerities, he wanted to know of British naval and strategic policy. The attack on Pearl Harbor accelerated Anglo-American co-operation. Anglo-American military co-operation strengthened the strategic relationship developing before December 1941. It was sometimes fraught with disagreements and differing perceptions, which affected war-making and spilt historical ink. More important, Churchill and Roosevelt created a Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) in Washington to determine strategy, co-ordinate supply, and make all military decisions. The Tehran Conference established committees to examine creating a new international security organisation, the UN, and to address post-war economic and financial reconstruction. Red Army success in 1943 gave Stalin decided diplomatic strength and, looking for post-war co-operation with a powerful Russia, Roosevelt sought common ground.
