Ernest King was a committed note-taker. He liked jotting down his impressions in almost stream of consciousness form as a way organizing his thoughts. In December 1942 he was planning for the momentous meeting of American and British grand strategists scheduled for January 1943 in Casablanca. As a note-taker, King had to be careful with his commander in chief, Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was wary about people writing down his statements in meetings and discouraged the habit. Therefore, King often recorded Roosevelt's opinions, and his own, after meeting with the President, which has left us with a fascinating record of American grand strategy that December.

On December 12, King produced a series of notes, somewhat random, certainly not pre-structured, which provides a tantalizing glimpse into his view of the Pacific war at the time and, crucially, some of Franklin Roosevelt's views. When it came to the President, he recorded one very interesting point – the amount of American effort that the President wanted sent to the Pacific war in the coming year.

This was an extremely important moment for King, as he was determined to make sure that the war against Japan received as much American production as possible. On the other hand, he was perfectly content to keep the British out of the region as much as possible. In 1942, as will be shown below, the war in the Pacific, surprisingly to some, had received the majority of American war construction. The political necessity of maintaining the American position in the region after Pearl Harbor and the great Japanese successes in early 1942 meant that the United States sent far more to the Pacific than it should theoretically have if it was truly fighting a policy of Germany-First. However, as 1942 was ending, King knew that the strategic thrust of the war was turning towards Europe.