1940 Autumn While confident of ultimate victory, Churchill believes it will come only with the United States as an ally. One impediment was the US Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, whose Irish-American biases left him with little sympathy for Britain and whose reports to Roosevelt showed no confidence in British victory. The President, however, had other eyes and ears: Harry Hopkins, Wendell Willkie and Kennedy's replacement as Ambassador, John Winant, were staunch supporters of the British cause. Carl Spaatz and "Wild Bill" Donovan, both U.S. army colonels who would later play leading roles in the US war effort, visited Britain and drew quite different conclusions from Kennedy's. (Churchill Center)

Churchill is said to have given much thought to Germany and Germans exclusive of Hitler and Nazism, yet he commented to friends that "a Hun alive is a war in prospect." But looking ahead to the end of the war, he knew that the mistakes of the previous war must not be repeated and that "Germany must remain in the European family." (Churchill Center)