| Original caption: “General George C. Marshall and General H.H. Arnold.” United States Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall Junior (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) and United States Army Air Force General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) photographed while attending the Octagon Conference, the 2nd Quebec Conference, September 12-16, 1944. This 2nd Quebec meeting, a year after the Quadrant Conference in August 1943, brought together United Kingdom Winston S. Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965); United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945); and their Joint Chiefs of Staff. The content of the Octagon Conference was significant, even if it is not well remembered. Over the reservations of Chief of Naval Operations Ernest J. King (November 23, 1878 – June 25, 1956), Roosevelt eagerly accepted the offer of a Royal Navy Pacific Fleet, which operationally became Task Force 57 in March 1945, serving until the end of the war. The Americans had to supply the British Pacific Fleet, but the carriers, battleships, and cruisers added to the striking power of the Allies. United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Junior (May 11, 1891 – February 6, 1967) proposed eliminating Germany’s industrial capacity, especially the Ruhr region, traditionally the center of production. Machinery would go to the Soviet Union. Demilitarization and agrarian practices would be combined with partitioning Germany into various states, with territory annexed by France, Poland, and the Soviet Union. What remained would be split into 2 north and south German states. Furthermore, Germany would be required to pay reparations. When the story broke, Hitler and the Nazis were horrified and incorporated the Morgenthau Plan into their propaganda. Initially, Roosevelt was supportive. The Morgenthau Plan outlasted Roosevelt, but eventually, he claimed he was against it as public support turned against it. Estimates that 25,000,000 Germans might die of starvation damaged Morgenthau’s credibility. The Marshall Plan replaced it, American money rebuilding the German industrial base, and they began to rearm by 1954. The British were worried about Lend-Lease postwar at the Octagon Conference. They wanted guarantees that they would not have to pay for the equipment or that shipments would stop with the termination of the European War. In return, the British pledged not to sell or export American arms postwar. After the Octagon Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill returned to Hyde Park, New York, where they signed the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire, a secret agreement for close cooperation on atomic weapons development, called “Tube Alloys” in the document. The American copy was misfiled, possibly because the aide filing the document thought “Tube Alloys” meant something to do with naval guns. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0916.jpg |
| Image Size | 547.12 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2352 x 2862 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | United States Army Signal Corps |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 12, 1944 |
| Location | Château Frontenac |
| City | Quebec City |
| State or Province | Quebec |
| Country | Canada |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-48223916(21) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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