ABSTRACT
Even before CARTWHEEL entered its final stages, the focus of American offensive operations shifted to the central Pacific. The navy brass originally had approved the New Guinea-Solomon Islands operations as a means of neutralizing Japan's offensive capabilities, but they regarded the central Pacific as the surest path to victory. The rapidly growing numbers of carriers and battleships could be used to best advantage there, and prospects of luring Japan into decisive naval battles made it all the more attractive. Saipan combined the worst characteristics of New Guinea and the Solomons with those of the central Pacific atolls. In late July, President Theodore Roosevelt had traveled to Pearl Harbor to confer with his Pacific theater commanders, General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz. In September, Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, together with their chiefs of staff, met in Quebec to discuss a number of subjects relating to the war in Europe and in the Pacific.
