The Arcadia Conference: December 1941-January 1942

Two weeks after the United States entered World War II, the Arcadia Conference (also known as the First Washington Conference) was held in Washington, DC, from December 24, 1941 to January 14, 1942. Working together with senior military leaders from the United States and Great Britain, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill made the initial crucial decisions for the combined war effort at this important meeting. One of these established the Combined Chiefs of Staff, comprising the high-ranking officers who would become the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and their British counterparts. It was this consultative body of top military leaders that would refine the Allied military strategy and approve all significant military decisions for the duration of conflict. The most consequential decision reached at Arcadia was that of “Germany first,” making the defeat of Germany the prime Allied objective. Additionally, plans to invade North Africa, which would come to fruition in November 1942 with Operation Torch, were extensively studied and discussed.

Arcadia was the first in a series of high-level conferences held by the US and British leaders in Washington, DC; Casablanca; Quebec; Cairo; Tehran; Malta; Yalta; and Potsdam to formulate the Allied grand strategy. At the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam conferences, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was also in attendance and played an important role. 

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The WW II Inter-Allied Conferences series consists of the following products available for free download:

Post-Arcadia Conference (Washington, DC), January 23–May 19, 1942: ISBN 9780160938900 (Mobi);
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Casablanca Conference (Morocco), January 14–24, 1943: ISBN 9780160938931 (Mobi);
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Trident Conference (Washington, DC), May 12–25, 1943: ISBN 9780160938795 (Mobi);
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Sextant Conference (Cairo, Egypt), Eureka Conference (Tehran, Iran), and the Second Cairo Conference (Egypt), November 22–December 7, 1943: ISBN 9780160938856 (Mobi); ISBN 9780160938849 (ePub);
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Octagon Conference (Quebec City, Canada), September 12–16, 1944: ISBN 9780160939259 (Mobi);
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Argonaut Conference (Malta and Yalta, Soviet Union), January 30–February 11, 1945: ISBN 9780160939303 (Mobi); ISBN 9780160939297 (ePub); ISBN 9780160939242 (PDF)

Terminal Conference (Potsdam, Germany), July 17–August 2, 1945: ISBN 9780160939235 (Mobi);
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