Roosevelt And Churchill: Men of Secrets - Tapa blanda

David Stafford writes interestingly... adding considerably to our knowledge of the great statesman. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

David Stafford's perceptive, well-researched and analytical narrative makes for engrossing reading. (Anthony Masters)

The author has emerged as one of our leading historians of the intelligence aspects of this conflict and his latest book does not disappoint. (GLASGOW HERALD)

Visiting London in 1918 as American Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin Roosevelt met the young Winston Churchill for the first time. Roosevelt's reported comments on Churchill did not bode well for the future. According to Roosevelt, "He acted like (The story of the development of the abiding "Special Relationship" established between the US and the UK by the two men has often been told, but Stafford intelligently reveals the personal dimensions of both men--Roosevelt the democratic, modernising anti)

Theirs was a unique relationship. It was based on interlinked national histories, partially shared nationality - Churchill was half-American - similarities in class and education, love for the navy, and a common belief in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon institutions. Above all, it was cemented by shared enemies: Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. On these foundations Churchill and Roosevelt constructed a fighting alliance unlike any other in history, with a Combined Chiefs of Staff, Anglo-American war-making boards, and an atomic alliance that delivered victory in 1945. The two men also developed an extraordinary personal relationship, communicating almost daily by telegram, telephone, personal meetings and through intermediaries. Their camaraderie ended abruptly with FDR's death on 12 April 1945, just hours before American and British troops liberated Buchenwald and Belsen. At the heart of this special relationship, hidden by layers of secrecy, was an extraordinary and far-reaching sharing of intelligence. This was the most sensitive touchstone of their mutual trust, and as David Stafford's masterly biography demonstrates, a responsive barometer of suspicion and discord.