[1] The two delegations were led by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Immediately before the Conference started, Roosevelt held preparatory talks with Churchill in his home town of Hyde Park, New York on 19 and 20 June.
"Churchill saw all those boats from the last war tied up on the Hudson river and in one of his great bursts of imagination he said "By George, we could take those ships and others like them that are good for nothing and sink them offshore to protect the landings" I thought well of it and we talked about it all afternoon.
The Americans were keen to open up a Second Front in France, but the British did not think that it was yet a feasible option and Churchill proposed developing a joint campaign in the Mediterranean Theater leading to an attack on Italy as the "soft under-belly" of the Axis.
Agreement was reached to start preparations for an invasion of the North African Colonies of Vichy France (Operation Torch).