At 4:30 A.M. on a cold, drizzly day in the spring of 1944, there came a knock on the guarded door of the top-secret White House Map Room. The one officer on duty opened the door to admit a rotund gentleman in white tie and tails, smoking a cigar and offering a cordial “Good morning!”

It was in a lower-floor chamber of the White House that President Roosevelt, during the war years, presided over his Map Room. Here was a repository of the highest-level information, accessible only to him and to a select group of advisers and under the command of the Presidential Naval aide. In this room Sir Winston Churchill, on many occasions, found himself at home away from home. For it was in London, directly across from Number l o Downing Street, that he had set up what might be called the original model for F. D. R.’s Map Room. When the Prime Minister flew to Washington to consult with the President in December, 1941, he brought a portable map room with him: a collection of large-scale maps and charts showing all theatres of operation. The President observed, and shortly thereafter he directed that his own Map Room be activated.

The P.M. made many trips to Washington during World War n. There naturally was concern for his safety, and elaborate precautions were taken to conceal precise times and the mode of travel. On these visits he was always the guest of the President, rather than of the British ambassador. The reason, probably, was that here he could talk on a “feet-on-the-table” basis with the men around Roosevelt who were the decision makers—men like Admiral William D. Leahy, Harry Hopkins, and General George C. Marshall.

The daily routines of the President and of the Prime Minister differed greatly, much to the harassment of the White House domestic staff. It was the President’s custom to come to the Map Room each morning about nine thirty, following a brief medical check by his personal physician. After this he ordinarily would not make use of the room again during the day, but often would return for an evening visit, '!"he Prime Minister, on the other hand, was likely to pop in at any time, although he habitually rose later than the President and invariably tucked himself away for an hour’s nap after lunch. He was a night owl by nature and often put in an appearance long after Mr. Roosevelt had gone to bed.

Between Sir Winston and Harry Hopkins, the President’s confidential adviser, there was an easy rapport, a homespun air of give-and-take that I do not believe ever existed between Churchill and Roosevelt. I recall seeing the Prime Minister and Hopkins engaged in deep conversation, seated across from each other at two desks placed back to back in the Map Room. Churchill could talk to Hopkins, bouncing off ideas, measuring Hopkins’ reaction, and contemplating how he might