ABSTRACT
In late September Winant was finally able to tell an impatient State Department that details of a new British draft of article seven had been sent to Halifax for informal discussion and that Redvers Opie, who was a member of Halifax’s staff and who was in London at that time, was shortly to take the full text to Washington. The growing misperceptions in Washington were strengthened by Halifax who told Acheson after a brief trip to London that Churchill had said that an economic accord with the US was second only in importance to winning the war. The mistake Halifax and Winant made was to infer that such statements meant Churchill was prepared to capitulate to American economic demands. Disappointment with the British proposals was mitigated by Halifax who encouraged members of the State Department to believe that they could still achieve an agreement which would be satisfactory to them.
