THE CONFLICT SURROUNDING OPERATION TORCH
"Operation Torch" was the code name for the Anglo American invasion of North Africa in 1942. Combat operations commenced in late 1942, less than a year from the time the United States became an official participant in the Second World War on 7 December 1941.
United States participation in Operation Torch was controversial among American political and military leaders. The command structure, objectives, and scope of the operation all were points of dispute between the British and the Americans.
This research examines American motivations that led to the decision for the United States to participate in Operation Torch. The findings of this examination are presented in (1) brief discussions that (a) describe the strategic situation confronting the United Kingdom and the United States in 1942, (b) the British position on the issues involved, and the (c) probable reactions of the governments of the North African countries that would be affected by an Anglo American invasion, and in (2) a more in depth discussion of the American position on the issues involved.
By the summer of 1941, the Soviet Union was drawn into the conflagration of the Second World War when it was attacked by Germany, and, in December of that year, the United States was drawn into the war through the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Within a day, the United States had also become an adversary in the European war, because Hitler, in honoring his Axis Pact with the Japanese, declared war on the United States.
By the time the United States was drawn into the European war, France had already been crushed by Germany, and Britain had survived largely through the success of the air Battle of Britain, and strategic caution on Hitler's part with respect to an invasion of Britain. The Germans were in firm control of the European continent; however, the British Eighth Army led by then Lieutenant General Bern...