"These reports, taken together, raised a question to which the Chiefs of Staff and the planners, British and American alike, needed an answer before they could go very far: Should actual preparations for the North African operation, which might or might not be undertaken, take precedence over the loading and dispatch of troops for movement in the North Atlantic? The North African operation would obviously take precedence over other operations in the Atlantic-the occupation of Brazil, the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, the Canary Islands, and Dakar-which were also contingent on negotiations with foreign powers"