Atlantic escorts pushed the United States toward open war

King shifted his flag from USS Texas to the faster cruiser USS Augusta and carried Roosevelt to the Atlantic Conference. Work with Admiral Sir Percy Noble established an escort arrangement in which US forces covered convoys toward a mid-ocean handoff to British and Canadian escorts. King and Noble also competed for resources from the same factories and politicians, making coalition cooperation an industrial as well as an operational negotiation. American coverage constrained German operations in the western Atlantic, while Marines occupied Iceland under naval escort. The sinking of USS Reuben James by a U-boat on 31 October 1941 then helped Congress justify amending the Neutrality Acts, including arming merchant ships and allowing them to deliver goods to British ports. These measures show American policy moving steadily from nominal neutrality toward the conflict King believed already existed in practice.