ARCADIA

ARCADIA, codename for the first Washington conference ( 22 December 1941 to 14 January 1942) at which Churchill, Roosevelt, and their military advisers hammered out future strategy and the mechanisms to be used to co-ordinate their war effort (see Grand Alliance). At the suggestion of the Americans, General Wavell was appointed to command ABDA. Other discussion included the possibility of invading North Africa, MacArthur's urgent requests for action to stop the Japanese in the Philippines, and the crucial issue of Lend-Lease for the USSR (see Three-Power conference). The dispatch of US troops to Northern Ireland and Iceland was agreed upon, as was the wording of the United Nations Declaration issued on New Year's Day 1942. Beaverbrook, who flew to join Churchill in Washington, urged Roosevelt and Donald Nelson, the executive director of the newly-established War Production Board, to set US production targets higher. This was achieved with such alacrity that apart from aircraft (the deliveries of which had to be cut by half because of USAAF expansion) the UK, during the first six months of 1942, suffered no shortages through a shortfall of Lend-Lease. See alsodiplomacy.