On this day, 82 years ago, on January 14, 1943 (December 9, 1942 in the lunar calendar), the Casablanca Conference was held in Morocco. The Casablanca Conference During World War II, as the Battle of Stalingrad was coming to an end, U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill held secret talks in Casablanca, newly liberated French Morocco, from January 14 to 23, 1943. France C.- A.- M.- General J. de Gaulle and H.- General H. Giraud also attended the meeting. Roosevelt tried for months to invite Stalin to the conference, but the Soviet head of state refused. His position was simpler: the U.S. and British forces must show some sign that they really wanted to fight the German ground forces, rather than letting the Russian army be completely at the forefront of the battle. There was a suspicion within the Soviet Union that some people wanted Germany and Russia to kill each other so that capitalist countries could rule Europe. In short, the only way to solve the huge casualties of the Russian army is to open a second front in Europe. In Stalin's view, further meetings were a bit superfluous. Although Roosevelt was disappointed that Marshal Stalin did not attend the talks, agreement was reached on a number of plans to guide the war. Some of these plans are compromises between U.S. and British military plans. For example, British staff members were alarmed by the U.S. Navy's request to emphasize the Pacific Theater despite central combat in Europe, and as a result agreed to move the Pacific Theater's operations against Japan beyond the level of full defense. U.S. Army generals firmly opposed the British strategy of delaying the operation "Overlord", but acknowledged the need to strengthen transportation forces and launch a strong anti-submarine campaign before launching an attack on the English Channel. The U.S. Air Force readily agreed to join the British Air Force in conducting a large-scale bombing of Germany. The major military decision made at the Casablanca Conference was unanimous agreement to attack Sicily as the first step towards defeating Italy. The British General Staff successfully argued that the strategy would use the Mediterranean channel opened by victory in North Africa to launch amphibious operations against Hitler's accomplice Mussolini. An offensive using Africa as a convenient springboard would strike the Axis 'greatest weakness. The possible consequence is that Turkey, a neutral country in the Mediterranean, may join the war against Germany, and some German pressure on the Eastern Front will also shift. At the same time, in order to attack the European continent, the Allies will continue to gather in Britain and gradually increase supplies to Russia. On the last day of the conference, President Roosevelt made some explosive remarks. He told the press that all three Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy) would have to "surrender unconditionally" and that the Allies would not tolerate higher conditions. He had occasionally spoken this to Churchill a few days earlier, and the British leader quickly woke up from his shock and acquiesced wholeheartedly. In the history of modern large-scale warfare, this is likely to be the last time the idea of "unconditional surrender" has been proposed.