Pacific war aims explain King's policy toward Britain

King's wartime disputes with Britain are better understood as strategy than as simple Anglophobia. His thesis had taught him to connect military operations with national policy and the political position a victor intended to gain. On that reading, he wanted the Pacific victory to establish an American sphere and resisted a British fleet that could restore British influence through a share in the campaign. His willingness to cooperate in the Atlantic, despite rejecting some British requests his forces could not support, reinforces the strategic explanation.