This history, which is based upon the papers in British official archives, might have as a subtitle 'The activities of the Foreign Office and British Missions abroad.' The war was won by the men who fought on sea and land and in the air ; the purpose of diplomacy was to further their victory by maintaining close agreement with the Allies of the United Kingdom, by securing good relations with neutral states, and by isolating the enemy. Foreign policy was a part of 'Grand Strategy', and the history of British diplomatic action must be read in the changing context of military failure and success. During the months after France had fallen out of the war and before the U.S.S.R. and the United States were attacked, the Foreign Office carried on a 'diplomacy of survival.' As the war moved forward slowly to an Allied victory, it was possible to give more attention to long reange questions, such as the post-war treatment of Germany, and the Future organization of peace and security. From 1942 onwards all problems, immediate or long-range, centred for Great Britain around her relations with the two other leading Allied Powers, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. A large part of the book deals with these relations. The documents show that, notwithstanding important differences of outlook and method, Anglo-American relations were dominated by a mutual wish for lasting collaboration. (The historian, indeed, has to beware of exaggerating the areas of controversy, merely because the documents pile up around them.) The British Government persisted, without success, in trying to obtain a similar 'will towards collaboration' from the Russians ; the story - recorded at length - of the British efforts to prevent a Soviet domination of Poland is a example of this failure.

Preface -- Introduction -- Ch. I. The alignment of forces, September-December 1939- -- Ch. II. The development and collapse of the allied plans with regards to Scandinavia : the political consequences of the allied defeat in Norway : Anglo-American relations before the opening of the German offensive in the West -- Ch. III. The German offensive in the West : the Franco-German armistice and the question of the French fleet : British recognition of General de Gaule as leader of a free French movement -- Ch. IV. Anglo-American relations from the opening of the German offensive in the West to the end of 1940 -- Ch. V. Great Britain, General de Gaulle, and the Vichy goverment from July, 1940, to September, 1942 -- Ch. VI. The western and eastern Mediterranean from the collapse of France to the German attack on the U.S.S.R. -- Ch. VII. Anglo-Russian relations from the opening of the German offensive in the West to the entry of the United States into the war -- Ch. VIII. Great Britain, the United States, and Japan -- Ch. IX. Anglo-Russian relations from Mr. Eden's visit to Moscow in December, 1941, to the end of 1942 : the Anglo-Russian treaty of May 26, 1942 : Russian demands for the opening of a second front : Russo-Polish relations from June, 1941, to April, 1943 -- Ch. X. The allied landings in North Africa : The Eisenhower-Darlan agreement : British attempts to bring about a settlement between General de Gaulle and General Giraud : Establishment and recognition of a French Committee of National LIberation -- Ch. XI. The unconditional surrender of Italy : Italian 'co-belligerency' : British attitude towards the demands of the italian political parties (to June 1944) -- Ch. XII. Anglo-Russian relations in 1943 : The Moscow and Teheran conferences : The questions of the Russo-Polish frontier and of the Russian attitude towards the Polish goverment -- Ch. XIII. Great Britain, the United States, and General de Gaulle from August, 1943, to July, 1945 : The recognition of the French National Committee as the Provisional Government of France : The affairs of Syria and the Lebanon, 1943-5 : Visit of the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden to Paris in November, 1944 : The question of an Anglo-French treaty -- Ch. XIV. Anglo-Russian relations during the first nine months of 1944 : Russian rejection of British proposals for a Russo-Polish settlement : The Prime Minsiter's proposal for a temporary division of spheres of action in the Balkans -- Ch. XV. British attempts to secure help for the Poles in the Warsaw insurrection : Visit of the Prime Minister and Mr. Eden to Moscow, October 9-18, 1944 : Further unsuccessful British negotiations to bring about a Russo-Polish settlement : Russian demands for an oil concession in Iran -- Ch. XVI. Great Britain, the U.S.S. R., and Turkey from the Adana Conference in January, 1943, to the Potsdam Conference -- Ch. XVII. British policy towards Yugoslavia from the capitulation of the Yugoslav army to the formation of a United Yugoslav government in March, 1945- -- Ch. XVIII. British policy towards Greece from the capitulation of the Greece army to the Varkiza agreement of February, 1945 -- Ch. XIX. British policy towards Spain from the summer of 1941 to the Potsdam conference -- Ch. XX. British relations with Portugal during the war -- Ch. XXI. Some problems in the co-ordination of Anglo-American policy in the Middle East, 1942-5 -- Ch. XXII. Great Britain, the United States, and Italy from June, 1944, to June, 1945 -- Ch. XXIII. Great Britain, the United States, and Argentina, 1943-4 -- Ch. XXIV. British relations with China from 1941 to the end of the war -- Ch. XXV. The definition of allied war aims, and proposals for the post-war organisation of security, from the Atlantic Charter to the Teheran Conference -- Ch. XXVI. Preparations for a conference on the establishment of a World Security Organization : The Dumbarton Oaks conference, August 22-September 28, 1944 : Failure to reach agreement on the question of a 'Great Power veto' : British and American compromise proposals -- Ch. XXVII. Proposals for western regional defence : The formation of British policy in 1944 with regard to the treatment of Germany after the war -- Ch. XXVIII. The Yalta conference, Febraury 4-11, 1945 -- Ch. XXIX. From Yalta to Potsdam. (I) Russian obstructiveness on Moscow Commission : Marshal Tito's disregard of his agreement with M. Subasic : Russian unilateral action in south-east Europe : The Prime Minister's efforts to secure an early tripartite meeting : Anglo-American recognition of the new Polish Provisional government -- Ch. XXX. From Yalta to Potsdam. (II) Abandonment of proposals for dismembering Germany : The Commission on reparation : The San Francisco conference and the signature of the United Nations Charter -- Ch. XXXI. The Potsdam conference, July 17 - August 1945 -- Notes to Chapter XXXI.