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Arthur L. FUNK DE GAULLE BETWEEN WASHINGTON, LONDON, AND MOSCOW 1943 r or (. \ 11 MARIANNE ADRIFT -<..A' How She Was Rescued by the British Lion . Pecked at by the American Eagle " And Hugged by the Russian Bear , To a large extent, American policy toward France during the Second '' World War was made and implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt. At times, as in the matter of trusteeships, the President would collaborate with his secretary of state, Cordell Hull; but at other times, as for example after the St.Pierre-Miquelon incident, he found Hull's anti-de Gaulle outburst too strong. Thereafter Roosevelt tended to exclude Hull from the policy formulation process. For opinions he came to rely on his military advisers, Stimson, McCloy, Marshall, Leahy. Yet there was a secondary level of American-French relations, pro- gressing behind the scenes, sometimes in opposition to Presidential policy, pragmatically solving problems which Roosevelt's adamant positions made difficult. Thus a Lend-Lease agreement operated without a recognized French organ to administer it; de Gaulle gradually gained control of Giraud's army in spite of presidential opposition; and Eisenhower was able to expand his military authority to cover civil questions which Roosevelt did not want to settle. Whatever the diverse attitudes which the President maintained, there is a consistency in American policy toward France. First, not unexpectedly, comes security and defense. Difficult as it may be now to believe, con- sidering that Hitler never crossed either the Dardanelles or Gibraltar, American military planners were obsessed with the dangers of a German attack on the United States. England and Iceland must therefore be held in the north, and in the south every effort must be made to keep the Nazis out of Dakar, only 1800 miles from the Brazilian coast. Nor must Germans have access to Martinique or Guadaloupe, where several Vichy warships rode out the war. Thus the Vichy policy. With no reason to break with Vichy, American planners felt that a neutral United States could negotiate with an immobilized but unoccupied and quasi-independent France to safeguard French North and West Africa, French Guiana, and the French West Indies. Once Germany struck at Russia, the vulnerability of Dakar lessened and the concern for security became proportionately smaller. Americans could think about France's future. Roosevelt's attitude was paternalistic: the President saw France as a group of profligate children who had dis- graced the family by fighting ineptly and remaining under their victor's influence. Only one of the children, little Charles, kept on fighting, trying to make his elders take notice that he had remained loyal to the family tradition. But the older brothers, although wicked and misguided, had grace and beauty, together with a potential for power, and Uncle Franklin was prepared to welcome back the prodigals, should they prove properly chastened, obedient, respectful, and above all, grateful. He was willing enough to feed little Charles the crumbs from his table, but he assiduously sent CARE packages to the prodigal brothers that they not be absorbed com- pletely into the enemy camp. A gesture of resistance and all would be forgiven. What Uncle Franklin chose to ignore was that the brothers demon- strated no progress while Little Charles grew stronger and healthier every day. Not inclined to humility, Charles became increasingly bitter that Uncle Franklin would not abandon his elder brethren. Indeed, the United States never abandoned France and the French people. There were consistent efforts to bolster up French morale by sending consumer 'Arthur .L Funk 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. Gainesville, FL 32605 goods to the Metropole and to North Africa. U.S. policy, (qrc pt, which was 180 degrees out of phase with the British blockadeA held that consumer goods would stiffen the French will to resist and that no articles would get to the Germans. Similarly the Americans later accepted the res- ponsibility of arming all the non-Gaullist French soldiers that former Vichy officers in North Africa could provide. While Roosevelt consistently opposed recognition of a Provisional French government, he did not prevent the training of a modernized army which would surely give its leader an edge in dominating a liberated France. One factor peculiar to Roosevelt, in delineating policy toward France, was his stubborn adherance to a position frequently described as Wilsonian. The applicable principle, self determination, enshrined in the Atlantic Charter and continuously extolled by the President, implied that no person or group should have allied recognition as a government unless the voice of the people had been heard: This principle was also applied by Roosevelt loosely to French overseas territories--especially Indochina--as well as to metropolitan France. If any American policy endangered relations with France, with the Resistance, and with the other Allies, it was this Rooseveltian anti-colonialism which so irritated both Churchill and de Gaulle. Allied wartime policy toward France divides itself (as properly a Gallic policy should) into three phases, the Vichy period, the North African period, and the Gaullist. Intrinsically interesting as the first two may be one has to admit that the policies affecting de Gaulle have been the most significant in their long-range impact on post-war France. Arthur Funk 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. Gainesville, FL 32605 The antipathy of President Roosevelt toward de Gaulle is well documented but difficult to explain. As this attitude developed long before the President met the French leader at Casablanca in 1943, it clearly derived from principle, rather than from personality. Basic to Roosevelt's thinking lay the sense that France was politically bank- rupt, which provided him with an opportunity to influence its recovery and to reconstruct the French Empire. It was not necessarily a weak France which the President desired--France would remain weak for a long time after its liberation--but he hoped for leaders who would be malle- able. General de Gaulle, with his intransigent positions and bold leadership, did not fit the proposed scenario. The President wished to postpone important political decisions until after the war, leaving military strategy as the interim determinant. De Gaulle, with ungrounded pretentions to head the French provisional government, and with no appre- ciable armed force to support him, was simply unacceptable. One of the few written formulations of the presidential position is found in a note wherein Roosevelt directs General Marshall to explain his position to Eisenhower: When you get over there, tell General Eisenhower that I have read his memorandum to you but that I still think he does not quite get the point. He evidently believes the fool newspaper stories that I am anti-de Gaulle, even the kind of story that says I hate him, etc., etc. All this, of course, is utter nonsense. I am perfectly willing to have de Gaulle made President, or Emperor, or King or anything else so long as the action comes in an untrammeled and un- enforced way from the French people themselves. But it is possible in an election so to influence it, so to restrict the vote,-so even to count the vote, that the people in power can swing it overwhelmingly their way. . Arthur C. Funk ~5 N.W. 30th Blvd. ainesville, FL 32605 It is awfully easy to be for de Gaulle and to cheer the thought of recognizing that Committee as the provi- sional government of France, but I have a moral duty that transcends "an easy way." It is to see to it that the people of France have nothing foisted on them by outside powers. It must be a French choice--and that means, as far as possible, forty million people. Self-determina- tion is not a word of expediency. It carries with it a very deep principle in human affairs. President Roosevelt's attitude toward de Gaulle and the French Committee stood in marked contrast to that of the Soviet Union. Indeed, from the very beginning de Gaulle, undoubtedly recalling the pre-World War-I dual entente, saw that France should be allied with Russia, a term habitually employed by the Free French leader. Soon after Russia was invaded by Germany in 1941 de Gaulle undertook to develop direct relations with the Soviet Union in order by bypass his British host as intermediary. After a preliminary contact via the Soviet ambassador in Turkey, representatives of the French Committee met with Maisky in 4 London. On September 26, 1941, while the United States still retained an ambassador at Vichy, the Soviet Union recognized de Gaulle as leader of the Free French. The good relations continued to improve throughout 1942, with a Gaullist representative, Roger Garreau, together with a military attache, GeneralE. Petit, going to Moscow. In London, Ambassador A. E. Bogomolov, accredited to the various governments-in-exile, developed personal relations with de Gaulle and his entourage. As a gesture of r^ good will toward Russia, de Gaulle dispatched the Normandie Squadron, a group of over 50 pilots and ground crews, to fight on the eastern 6 front. When Molotov came to London in May 1942, he had a long conver- sation with de Gaulle, assuring him of the good will and support of 7 the Soviet Union. (Molotov's principal mission, of course, was not to encourage Free France, but to encourage the opening of a Second Front in 1942.) Although the United States still recognized the Vichy Government in France, American representatives did keep in touch with the French ^ National Committee in London, through the office of Admiral Harold 8 Stark, commander of U.S. naval Forces in Europe. It is true that President Roosevelt, and especially Secretary of State Hull, bore no great enthusiasm for de Gaulle, but it is noteworthy that during 9 this period, Lend-Lease shipments came to the Free French. Molotov's trip to London, and later to Washington, held great significance for the French because out of the Commissar's talks with Roosevelt came the American commitment to establish a "European" front before the end of 1942. That this front became North Africa, not the European continent, brought dismay to the Russians but it held great significance for the French, who considered Algiers part of France. Serious preparations for TORCH, the occupation of North AFrica, began in July, with Eisenhower designated as commander-in-chief. De Gaulle and the Free French were assiduously denied any part in this planning, while contacts made in North Africa by Robert Murphy were carefully followed up. Murphy was in touch with legitimate members of the French Resistance, but in general they were Rightist in orienta- tion, and had no allegiance to de Gaulle. Principal among these was General Henri Giraud, untainted by Vichy because of his imprisonment in Germany until 1942, but nevertheless a high-ranking regular officer in the French Army, whose orientation and attitudes were not unlike those of Marshal Petain. /" As both the Soviet Union and the Free French were excluded from / the planning for TORCH, they were able to empathize to the extent that their mutual interests were served. When de Gaulle, after the staunch military efforts of General Koenig in North Africa, changed "France Libre" to "la France Combattante"--Fighting France--Moscow extended. its recognition, affirming that de Gaulle's National Committee had "the sole right to organize the participation of French citizens and territories in the war and to represent French interests to the govern- 11 ment of the USSR." During this period the French Communist Party accepted the National Committee and began to cooperate with it. ; Prominent French Communists who had taken refuge in the Soviet Union, 12. like Maurice Thorez and Andre Marty, gave de Gaulle their support. S-Increasingly miffed by American and British actions which took little account of the National Committee, de Gaulle and his adherents sought support and reassurances from Moscow. The reassurances were forthcom- ing but at a time when Russia desperately needed allies in the west, Stalin was not inclined to favor de Gaulle at the expense of alienat- ing Churchill and Roosevelt. In August, Benes told the Gaullists that while the Soviet Government favored recognition of the French Committee as the government of France, it had informed him that now was not the opportune time. Operation TORCH, the'invasion of North Africa, brought an entirely new dimension to French-Allied relations. The Americans who by reason of a deal with Churchill held a preponderant position, had first proposed General Giraud as the principal French leader. How- ever, when Admiral Darlan fortuitously appeared on the scene, they recognized him as administrator for Morocco and Algeria. Although a reluctant Churchill acceded to this so-called "temporary expedient," neither Stalin nor de Gaulle could brook such pandering to a hated collaborator. With Darlan's assassination at the end of 1942, the way was opened for possible collaboration between the Admiral's successor, Giraud, and de Gaulle, between whom negotiations continued after the "shotgun wedding" inflicted on them by Roosevelt and Churchill at Casablanca. So long as German forces remained in North Africa, Eisenhower would not consider anything but a military establishment to the rear. Ignoring de Gaulle, he gave all his support, in terms of military and economic supplies, to the politically naive General Giraud. Although the inept Frenchman would ultimately be supplanted by de Gaulle, he must be given credit for having persuaded the Americans to rearm the 15 French forces. Rearmament of the French caused many problems for Great Britain and the United States. Even before America entered the war the British had undertaken, from its few supplies, to furnish de Gaulle's Free French with arms and equipment. By 1943 these forces amounted to approximately two divisions: General le Clerc's Free French armored division which had marched from Chad to join the British Eighth Army, and General Koenig's, whose units had fought bravely at Bir Hacheim. When the Americans came on the scene, imbued with their optimism and faith in the unlimited expansion of U.S. production, they quickly calculated that they could afford the rearmament of twelve or thirteen French divisions. But herein lay a potential Anglo-American conflict for, by the very size of their support, the Americans would within a year be in a position to dominate French military operations and conse- quently to exert undue influence in liberated France. Worse, from the British point of view, the American assistance would go not to de Gaulle and the Free French, but to General Giraud and the Vichy army of 120,000 residing in French North Africa. With this potential power, Giraud could,with political acumen and will, become the foremost con- tender for postwar leadership--entirely indebted to the United States for his promotion. Alas for Giraud, and for his sponsor, the French general wanted only to fight Germans. His political ineptness permitted de Gaulle to shunt him away before French forces were significantly deployed, and his incapacity for logistics lost him the support of Eisenhower and all the American advisers in North Africa. Nevertheless, the American armament program, even without Giraud, left a legacy of problems not easily resolved. The ascendency of de Gaulle to military control meant that months had been lost in reorgan- izing the hierarchies of power. From the single command of Giraud, the French army came under control of a Minister of War in de Gaulle's provisional government, which would consider the political as well as military use of French troops. A further delay developed with the conversion of the two British-equipped divisions to American tables of organization. This was required because the French forces would be fighting, whether in Italy or -in France, under the command of those who could provide spare parts and supplies--the Americans. By the end of 1943, the United States had effectively supplanted the British as underwriters of French military power, now counted as eight divisions; the Americans had thus indirectly achieved a preponderant influence in decisions involving the French armed forces. This preponderant American influence might have been benign if British, Soviet, and American objectives had been identical. However, this was not the case. Undoubtedly Churchill, although he had many dif- ficulties with de Gaulle, would have backed him and recognized the Committee as a provisional government if it had not been for Roosevelt's )7 adamant position. Stalin, farther away from the West, would in a show- down have chosen Roosevelt over de Gaulle but in 1943 he could afford to continue the policy which had been essentially in effect since 1941. De Gaulle had appealed for Soviet backing in his struggle against Wash- ington and its Giraudist policy, but Moscow refused to go out on a limb, contented itself with advocating support for "all anti-Hitlerite forces" 18 and emphasing "unity" as the necessary ingredient for a powerful front. There also began to appear some potential clouds of discord in connec- tion with Poland: Moscow's support of the Union of Polish Patriots ran counter to de Gaulle's dealings with the Polish Government-in-Exile 19 in London. Unity seemed to have been achieved when, in June 1943, Giraud and de Gaulle joined together to establish the French Committee of National Liberation (FCNL) in Algiers. With this compromise apparently sanctioned by England and the United States, the Soviet Union moved for immediate recognition. Churchill, appreciating more completely than Stalin how strongly Roosevelt felt, and seeing himself as the architect of the fragile French structure, quickly urged Stalin to soften his enthusiasm in the interests of Allied harmony Although this placed him in a slightly embarrassing position vis-a-vis the French, Stalin L-0 reluctantly agreed to do so. De Gaulle certainly appreciated the willingness of the USSR to recognize the new Committee, but he realized that more meaningful advantages would come from recognition by the Western allies. If especially the United States would view the Committee, not General Giraud (the Commander-in-Chief), as the body dealing with Lend-Lease, armament, sovereignty in North Africa, then de Gaulle could negotiate at the level he aspired to--directly with the Big Three. Furthermore, a large issue loomed on the horizon: the possible surrender of Italy. Not only did France have frontier questions with Italy at stake, but precedents of AMGOT (Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory) might affect France. Recognition could also play a part in de Gaulle's future rela- tions with Russia and the French Communist Party. If de Gaulle believed he had firm backing from the United States and Great Britain--with possible entry into a postwar western bloc--he would not need to solicit so ardently the support of Stalin. Obviously Churchill clearly analyzed this possible drifting away of France, and he bent all his considerable persuasive efforts to woo Washington into a policy of recognition. As early as June 25 the State Department set out a number of requirements which so restricted the French Committee that it could scarcely be called recognition; and indeed, Roosevelt wrote Churchill on July 22 that on military matters we should deal with Giraud, and that political matters should be left to the people of France; he did not want to use the word "recognition" at all. No formula had been arrived at when the overthrow of Mussolini, with significant impact on future Allied policy toward Italy, led to Churchill's meeting with Roosevelt at Quebec in August. The two leaders decided there to see if they could resolve their differing positions toward the French Committee. It is ironic that while a major decision at Quebec involved landings in France, the two major powers could not agree on the extent to which they would cooperate with de Gaulle and Giraud. The foreign ministers, Eden and Hull, who were charged to work out a formula, fouhd themselves so far apart that, although no one wished to reveal cracks in the solidwall of the Grand Alliance, they found it necessary to make separate statements. The American formula bluntly refused any favorable gesture to the French Committee: This statement does not constitute recognition of a government of France or of the French Empire by the Government of the United States. It does constitute recognition of the FCNL as func- tioning within specific limitations during the war. Later on the people of France, in a free and untrammeled manner, will proceed in due course to select their own government and their own officials to administer it. The British did not want to antagonize the Americans by wandering too far from Roosevelt's position, and came out with a formula stating that they "recognize the committee as a body qualified to ensure the conduct of the French effort in the war within the framework of inter-Allied cooperation. The British and American positions were published at the end of the conference and appeared simultaneously with the unambiguous Soviet recognition which had been held back at the request of the western powers. Some newspapers in the United States thought the announcements unseemly. For example, the New York Herald Tribune: The grudging air of the American statement is very unfortunate. In particular the question of the procedure to be adopted when the invasion of metro- politan France begins is left unanswered. In comparison with the broad and simple formula which the Soviet Union has adopted the elaborate qualifications deemed necessary by the Western Allies would benefit from a tone of cordiality. With the statements emerging from Quebec it seemed to Moscow that there should be no further objection to Soviet representation in Algiers. Once the occupation of North Africa occurred, in November 1942, Robert Murphy, already in Algiers, had become political adviser to Eisen- hower. Later he was joined by a British representative, Harold Macmillan. So long as the fighting continued in Tunisia, Eisenhower had some legitimate reason for refusing to have Soviet observers in North Africa, but once de Gaulle joined with Giraud in establishing the FCNL, a refusal to permit Alexander E. Bogomolov, already accredited to the French while in London,had no realistic basis. Moscow kept urging for the Soviet Ambassador's right to take his place along with Murphy and Macmillan, now representing their countries with the * new Committee. Eisenhower, at this time heavily involved in the Sicily campaign They were soon to be replaced by Edwin Wilson and Duff Cooper. and in negotiations with the rightist Badoglio, undoubtedly did not want to be bothered by Russians in North Africa, but it was the State Department which held up approval. Even after the Quebec recognition declarations, Bogomolov had to cool his heels for another month before the diplomatic arrangements could be made. Finally, on October 9, 1943, the portly Soviet Ambassador, with a retinue of 25, made his appearance inAlgiers. By this time, with Sicily and Corsica in Allied hands, with the Italian surrender, with the Italian campaign under- way, a new phase in Mediterranean activity had been inaugurated. De Gaulle continued to pursue his difficult path, seeking a way to exert his power over that of Giraud, to obtain support from both Communists and rightists, to obtain concessions from the United States. He faced frustration after frustration. Having been "recognized" at Quebec in August, de Gaulle waited to see what would follow. He knew of course that Russia had given him clear-cut support, but the Soviets had no significant voice in the issueswhich confronted the French leader; continued rearmament bungled by Giraud's inefficiency; pressure of French Communists to have more of a voice in the Committee; purge of old Vichyites. But above all stood the example of Italy, with Sicily overwhelmed in July, and negotiations for an Italian surrender proceeding in August. Stalin and de Gaulle shared common interests in regard to Italy: Stalin sought representation in the Mediterranean, from which Ambassador Bogomolov continued to be excluded. Taking the initiative, Stalin wired Roosevelt and Churchill while they were at Quebec. Among other points he said:7 he said: I consider that the time has come to create a mili- tary-political commission of representatives of the three countries--USA, Great Britain, and the USSR . Up to the present time the USA and England have con- sulted and the USSR has received information regarding the results of the consultation of the two powers in the capacity of a third, passive observer. I must say that it is impossible to tolerate such a situation any longer. I propose that this commission be created and to fix its place for the present instance in Sicily. Stalin even recommended that the FCNL be represented on this new Com- mission. Surprisingly Roosevelt voiced no objection, pointing out that the United States was arming ten or eleven French divisions, which would certainly be assigned to fight in either Italy or southern France. He did not, however, want the French involved in the occupa- 28 tion of Italy. Once the Italians surrendered, on September 8, Stalin wished to have the new Mediterranean Commission to start functioning at once, and named Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrei Vyshinsky as Soviet delegate. The Russian assumption (as well as the French) was that the Commission would function as an advisory and directing board for the military commander in charge of the occupation. It soon became apparent that Washington was clouding the issue by developing an entirely different sort of formula, with possibly Chinese, Brazilian, Greek, and Yugoslav members, to make broad recommendations but with no implementing authority. When the revised articles of the Italian surrender terms were released, late in September, the Soviets and French noted to their dismay that behind the military would be an Allied Control Council, with for the moment only American and British members. The Soviet Union vehemently protested this development and the whole question of supervisory commissions had to be placed on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of Hull and Eden with Molotov 30 at the end of October. This was a tremendously vital issue. One could argue that as the occupation of North Africa did not involve the defeat of an Axis power, international supervision need not have been imposed. But Italy was different: a major belligerent, a nation which had sent divisions against the Soviet Union, and incidentally,a vocal Communist Party. Moscow maintained there existed a legitimate reason for being a member of an Allied Control Council. The treatment of the USSR on this occasion would provide a powerful precedent once the question of an ACC for Poland, Bulgaria and other countries came up. Unrepresented at the proposed Moscow foreign ministers meeting, de Gaulle could only hope that his cause would be championed by Molotov. He was faced at this time by another problem, involving French Commun- ists, who had been insisting that they have seats in the FCNL. The surrender of Italy brought in its wake an uprising in Corsica, engineered to a large extent by the Corsican Front National. During September, French troops liberated Corsica, but to de Gaulle's chagrin the opera- tion was masterminded by General Giraud in contact with Communists. Thus de Gaulle was doubly irritated: Giraud had acted without con- sulting the FCNL's Commissioner of War, nor had he worked with the 31 Gaullist Resistance. De Gaulle was now'confronted with serious issues: how to keep French Communists under control, and at the same time placate the / Soviet Union, seemingly his only ally in high Allied councils. At this juncture, he went to Corsica to give a stirring speech celebrat- ing the island's liberation. At the end he said eloquently:3~ Here we are in the middle of the Mediterranean, this sea from which our civilization came to us; this sea which touches France on the north and French North Africa on the south; this sea by which so many secular influences have brought indestructible friendships with the Near East; this sea which penetrates and links to us the valiant Balkan people; this sea, finally, which is one of the routes to our natural ally, dear and powerful Russia. It ws de Gaulle's genius that in moments of deepest adversity he could act as if France's eternal glory remained unimpaired. In 1943 the National Liberation Committee controlled no part of metropolitan France, commanded only a few poorly-equipped divisions, and exercised no more than a tenuous sovereignty over the unoccupied areas of the ex- tensive French empire. But while this address served warning to the western powers that de Gaulle could not be relied on necessarily to support a purely west-European bloc, nothing would be more erroneous than to assume that thoughts about a Russian alliance were generated solely by antagonism toward Roosevelt or Churchill, even though they had frequently frustrated de.Gaulle's ambitions for equal status. De Gaulle sometimes reasoned more comfortably in a pattern of nine- teenth-century power politics than he did in terms of collective security; he had witnessed the League of Nations' helplessness before Hitler, and nothing he had experienced personally was calculated to upset his belief in the value of Bismarckian diplomacy. French policy required that Germany be contained, and no matter how de- pendent he may have been, in 1943, on the two western powers, de Gaulle never lost sight of the ultimate value to him, and to France, of Russia's support. That de Gaulle could make gestures toward the Soviet Union at all during the war is the more remarkable when one considers the dis- trust he felt toward Communists and his fear of their domination once France was liberated. He well knew that the Communist Resistance had proved itself to be dedicated and effective, and he thoroughly under- stood that only the most careful maneuvering could plot a course which would keep French Communists in their place at the same time that he curried favor with Moscow. This was especially true so long as Russia, even though remote from the Mediterranean theater, possessed goals the realization of which might be helped by de Gaulle and, ultimately, by France. For example, Moscow hoped to persuade de Gaulle that Maurice Thorez, head of the French Communist Party, should be enabled to leave Russia and assume a ministerial post in the French Committee of National Liberation. Thorez did not come to North Africa, but de Gaulle in the autumn of 1943 i'd offer the Communists two seats in the French Committee. The negotiations were protracted, and 33 the Communists only entered the FCNL in the spring of 1944. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministers were meeting in Moscow, and it soon became apparent that the Soviet concept of a military-political commission would have to evolve into something different. Eden took the leadership in proposing that the commission should become two: ultimately, after much argumentation, the European Advisory Commis- sion (EAC), in which the FCNL would not be represented, and the Italian Advisory Commission, which would have a French (as well as possibly a Greek and Yugoslav) member. Although the IAC would have only consultative and advisory functions, Stalin seemed to consider it significant enough so that he appointed Vyshinsky as the Russian representative, with Bogomolov as deputy. Great Britain and the United States named Macmillan and Murphy respectively as members. Out of the Moscow meetings the French had obtained a seat on the Italian Advisory Commission, but they felt let down not to have been invited to join the EAC. Rumors trickled out of Moscow that the Russians had not been willing to support the French at the expense of alienating England and the United States. According to Macmillan, Bogomolov "took an unfavorable view of the French. They had already tried to make trouble by playing off each of us against the other, but we must present a united front. Britain,America, and the Soviet Union--these nations alone mattered." Murphy also received r a report that de Gaulle feared Russia was playing off the French Y) against the Americans and British. Molotov told Eden that the French Committee had complained against Russia for opposing a seat for the French. Eden replied to the effect that a complaint had reached him regarding British lack of support, as against Russian approval: "a clear indication the French were playing the Soviet and British governments against each other." During November, while the Big Three converged on Cairo and Teheran, de Gaulle went through a series of crises, of which the most important was certainly the elimination of Giraud from the FCNL, leaving de Gaulle as undisputed president. Any fears that Washington would come vigorously to Giraud's assistance proved ungrounded, and de Gaulle faced the new year, 1944, with many problems, but basically in a stronger position than before. In obtaining a seat on the Italian Advisory Council, filled by the French foreign commissioner, Rene Massigli, de Gaulle for the first time achieved a sort of diplomatic acceptance. That the IAC never significantly controlled affairs in Italy (by April 1944 Vyshinsky, Macmillan, and Murphy had all been replaced) did not altogether lessen this achievement. If de Gaulle never ceased to think in terms of an ultimate Russian alliance, he was not so unrealistic as to believe that Soviet support could amount to more than a graceful gesture so long as France's liberation depended completely on Anglo-American good will. No matter how cordially he acted toward Bogomolov or Vyshinsky, de Gaulle did not slight Eisenhower and other members of the Allied command. On the contrary, he had such a warm and comprehensive conversation with Eisenhower at the end of December 1943, that Captain Butcher, in his My Three Years with Eisenhower, referred to it as a "love-fest," and de Gaulle himself felt so reassured by Eisenhower's forthright support that he permitted himself unwarranted optimism regarding his future 36 relations with Washington. All Eisenhower needed, as Supreme Commander for the cross-channel invasion, was a directive from Roosevelt and Churchill empowering him to cooperate with the French Committee. To look ahead into 1944, it is worth noting that three months \ after de Gaulle's provisional government was installed in Paris, the V U French leader worked out, even before the war had ended, an agreement with the Soviet Union. Later succeeded by Couve de Murville. t Negotiation of the Franco-Soviet pact in December 1944 was hailed in France as a diplomatic triumph, and only a few cynical voices 37 / were raised to pcint out how little it really meant. With Stalin un- willing to commit himself to final boundary arrangements without con- sulting Roosevelt or Churchill, bilateral agreements between France and Soviet Russia achieved only academic significance. At the end of 1944 no one knew what sort of peace treaty would be worked out or how influential the proposed United Nations organization would prove to be. Some observers feared that the bilateral pact would alienate the United States, which might interpret the agreement as an effort to bypass Dumbarton Oaks. The State Department denied that Washington opposed the alliance, but it is not unlikely that Roosevelt, although register- ing no formal objections, harbored some misgivings about this apparent K- revival of power politics before the San Francisco Conference had even 38 been organized. At the time the Cold War had set in and the philosophy of NATO developed, Charles de Gaulle, whose political thinking was so deeply imbued with lessons drawn from Bismarck and the historical logic of power balances, had gone into semi-retirement at Colombey-les-Deux- NA TO Eglises. When he returned to power in 1958 he was confronted by an A alliance which he had not made and which he did not like. It is true that in the intervening years he had evolved in political subtlety, and had learned much about practical diplomacy, but it should not be assumed that de Gaulle had altered in his basic conviction, expressed over twenty years earlier, that an understanding with Russia was fundamentally in France's interest. He wrote, in his memoirs, referring to his proposed visit to Moscow in 1944: "Perhaps it would be possible to renew old Franco-Russian solidarity which, though repeatedly betrayed and repudiated, remained no less a part of the natural order of things, as much in relation to the German menace as to the endeavors of the Anglo-American hegemony." There is no sound of NATO in this; it is a carry-over from the Franco-Russian under- standing of 1892. There is another dimension to American-French relations, less glamorous and exciting than the Roosevelt-de Gaulle alterations, but more basic, more long-lasting, and from the point of view of long-range historical per - spective, more significant than political shifts of tide. It is as if France, badly hurt in an accident, is rushed to a hospital. There she is tended by her own physicians, and some foreign ones, who have diverse diagnoses and regimes. The doctors argue and quarrel, some quitting and being replaced, some trying this remedy, others that. Meanwhile the nursing staff remains much the same, both French and foreign, providing under difficult conditions S\ not only tender and loving care, but sometimes giving the patient medica- tions that the doctors don't know about, and might in fact not administer p. ) themselves. The doctors, however, are busy with other and higher concerns; they do not too much interfere (there are rumors that they don't really understand) and as the patient seems to prosper they content themselves with heated arguments theoretical and abstract. As early as 1940, the American government sought ways of mitigating the plight of those French people who were suffering,in terms of food and consumer goods, from the Nazi attack. While political motivations--that is, keep France friendly to the United States--cannot be excluded, a large pro- portion of pure humanitarianism impelled Washington toward this policy. From the beginning the aid program was subjected to opposition. It was denounced by those who saw economic assistance to the French as bolstering the unsavory Vichy regime and indirectly favoring Germany. It particularly irked British policy makers who wanted to blockade France and Vichy French Africa; but the policy also had plenty of opposition in the United States from Gaullist supporters and from elements within the government which ultimately constituted The Board of Economic Warfare. Robert Murphy who as the President's special representative in North Africa, had signed an agreement for economic aid with General Weygand in February 1941, continually ran into bd~ocbtte opposition either from the British blockadeAor from hurdles set up by BEW in Washington. In actual fact, the deliveries either to unoccupied France or to North Africa never amounted tc much, and whatever the aims of the program, the implementation sometimes did as much harm as it did good. The agreement, which enabled the United States to send observers into North Africa, caused the Germans to intensify their surveillance and ultimately to place pressure on Petain to remove General Weygand, who had been in Roosevelt's secret hopes, a potential champion of resistance. But also, the meagre supplies which arrived, far short of the promises, exasperated the French and Arabs t who had expected significant economic assistance. French North Africa was 141 not bursting with pro-American sentiment, much as the President may have assumed that it was. . Once the North African landings took place, in November 1942, the possi- bility of sending aid to France ended. The Vichy Gamble was bankrupt. But new programs began: first, the American commitment to equip General Giraud's twelve divisions, and second,-an undertaking to continue the Murphy-Weygand concept of bringing in civilian goods for the population. The situation was a curious one. The United States had approved Lend- Lease to deGaulle's Free French but not to the pro-consuls in North Africa, whether Weygand, Darlan, or Giraud. For Lend-Lease, an agreement was gener- ally made with a government whose defense the President deemed vital to the defense of the United States. The situation in North Africa was unique: as the United States, the occupying power, was already making payments for use of French facilities, and as France had billions in frozen assets, the American government concluded that the French could pay cash for civilian goods. It was also assumed, in order to obtain French coopera- tion behind the lines, that the military command had an interest in prevent- ing "disease and unrest." The question thus became: should the Army develop and administer a minimum program (undoubtedly the most efficient) or should a civilian administration organize enhanced aid programs? Ultimately the latter concept prevailed. One is concerned to ask how and why? Was an aid program, in 1943, considered at the highest level as an aspect of post-war policy toward France? In fact, economic aid was more or less taken for granted. With the Lend-Lease Act already accepted, with the tradition of Herbert Hoover's post-World War I program, with the thinking that was to lead to UNIRA, the principle that economic stability underlay the kind of world the United States wanted, was not much debated. It was rather the details, of how much and to whom, the degree to which Congress would support, whether assis- tance could go to unrecognized organs like the CFLN, which provided grist for argumentation. With foreign civilian needs in liberated areas an anticipated concern, the United States in June 1943 established the Office of Foreign Economic Coordination, which in September evolved into the Foreign Economic Administration under Leo Crowley. In October UNRRA, headed by Herbert Lehman, came into existence. In North and West Africa, a temporary Lend-Lease arrangement, the Modus Vivendi on Reciprocal Aid, had been set up in September. That there should be such aid was generally assumed: Murphy spoke of increasing imports to meet "the populations industrial and economic demands;" assistance was to be furnished, according Lo the administrators, "on the basis of need and contribution to the war effort." Into this situation had come that most effective and able French nurse, Jean Monnet. Highly esteemed as banker and economist, at home in the highest financial circles of France, England, and the United States, Monnet had chaired the Joint Anglo-French Purchasing Mission, established to obtain supplies from America. When France fell his differences with de Caulle kept him from joining the Free French, and he placed his services at the disposal of Churchill, who asked him to continue his work in the LUni.ed States on behalf of the British. It was Monnet who had coined the- sogan "Arsenal of Democracy." Personally acquainted with Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy and Lend-Lease Administrator Harry Hopkins, Monnet remained close to American decision-makers. In 1943, when the North African administration, under the inept Giraud, began to falter, Roosevelt asked Monnet to see what he could do in Algiers. In June, when Giraud joined de Gaulle to form the French Committee of National Liberation, Monnet became, ostensibly on Giraud's si de, the Commissioner for Armaments, Suprpes, and Reconstruction. During the next few months, while political- military wrangling absorbed Generals Giraud and de Gaulle, Monnet quietly negotiated the modus vivendi on Lend-Lease. By early 1944 the United States had sent to North and West Africa almost 500,000,000 tons of civilian supplies, valued at more than $125,000,000. Monnet soon realized that a larger issue, assistance to post-war France, needed his attention. This he could scarcely negotiate from Algiers which, with the war front moving to Italy and France, was in danger of becoming a backwater. He needed to go to Washington and in November prevailed on de Gaulle, now sole chairman of the FCNL (already being referred to as the provisional government but not so recognized), to send him to the United States to negotiate an increased program of aid. That France was able to obtain a "Master Agreement" on Lend-Lease was due largely to the extraordinary negotiating ability of Jean Monnet. Yet even he, while able to cope with the second echelon of "nurses," ran into almost insuperable odds when the "doctors" intervened. By the time of the Normandy invasion Monnet had developed a basic scheme which emphasized not simply military needs but also the requirements of thecivilian population. A month later, when de Gaulle visited Washington in July, he generated good will and confidence, apparently establishing cordial personal relations 43 between himself and Roosevelt. As a result, the President approved a limited Lend-Lease agreemeKt which (although Monnet immediately protested the narrowness of its scope) seemed to pave the way for France to be equated with England and Russia as primary Lend-Lease recipients. Would it be possible to recapitulate wartime American policy toward France in terms that would comprise the policy of the United States, rather than that of the President, the State, War or Justice Department, or Congress, or the people in general? I think it is. Details and specifics may vary, but there are generalities which prevail. 27 First, the United States was disturbed and disillusioned at France's weakness. During the pre-war isolationism, even though Americans did not wish to get into the war, they wanted Hitler restrained. When France abjectly fell it was as if a first line of defense had collapsed. Britain would be next. A German march into Morocco would bring Hitler first to Dakar, then to Brazil. Martinique and Guadeloupe, a short flight from the Panama Canal,would be threatened. In East Asia, when Japan walked into Indochina, the Philippines were flanked. France could not be counted on. The country had revealed itself to be second rate. It would take a lot of proof for the United States to accept France again as a great power. Much as de Gaulle was hailed by liberals in the United States, there prevailed among Americans in general an undercurrent of distrust and even contempt. It was evidenced, after the war among the soldiers who preferred Germans to rrenchmen; its echoes re- sound in high-level dispatches which refer to frogs. And this was reciprocated. What Frenchman has not said "Je me mefie des americains?" The French saw the United States ready to devour their empire, prepared to keep France inferior the better to serve American interests. While this mutual antipathy, muffled by the "Lafayette we are Here "syndrome, is diffi- cult to detect, it nevertheless crept out to taint imperceptably all levels of Franco-American relations. Second, insofar as France could not defend those areas crucial to American defense, the United States had to make certain that they did not pose future threats. Washington had an interest especially in Morocco, French West Africa, the French West Indies, French Indochina. They should not go back to France, or if they did, only under circumstances whereby American security would be safeguarded. To affirm the foregoing is some- what different from affirming that the United States was anti-imperial or anti-colonial. Third, France's potential as a wartime ally should be exploited to the extent that it would help the war effort and save American lives; but not beyond. Washington generally accepted the Army's policy of avoiding "disease and unrest" behind the lines, but proponents of going much farther than -that minimum ran into opposition. If the United States did go beyond the minimum, it was more due to Jean Monnet's persuasive genius than to an American desire to build up a strong post-war France. Similarly with military aid: Washington approved without demur arms for a French Army of 8-12 divisions, but when de Gaulle asked for fifty, the problem changed. (Of course the problem changed again when the Cold War intensified, when Communism threatened, when Ho Chi Minh challenged western suzereinty.) The United States was prepared to assist France when it was clearly advantageZous, from the point of view of wartime strategy, to do so; but the United States did not consider it in her interest to re- build France into a great power. Fourth, the United States did not really care profoundly what sort of government France had (though preferably neither fascist nor communist), so long as it would abide by the tenets of the Atlantic Charter and other precepts of American economic foreign policy. When de Gaulle's provisional government signed the Lend-Lease Master Agreement it accepted to take action directed (among other things) "...to the elimination of all forms of discriminatory treatment in international commerce, and to the re- duction of tariffs and other trade barriers; and, in general, to the attainment of all the economic objec- tives Eof the Atlantic Charter]." 44 De Gaulle was unable to obtain a seat at Yalta or Potsdam, but France was permitted to send a delegate to Bretton Woods. When Roosevelt kept in- sisting that there should be "self-determination" in France, he presumably felt that elections would bring forth the voters who had supported the Reyna:-ds, the Daladiers, the Chautemps, the Jeanneneys, the Tardieus, the Lebruns, tue Herriots--solid folk, not tainted by Vichy, who would emerge, or whose counterparts would emerge after the liberation. Folk who could be counted on to support a post-war world geared to avoid the economic chaos tlat had followed World War I. Could one count on an unknown like de Gaulle? An arrogant and imperious upstart who would not recognize France's new second-place role in world affairs; who dealt with Communists and Socialists from France's underground Resistance; whose basis of power seemed to lie with those very elements who opposed France's traditional elite. President Roosevelt may not have disliked de Gaulle as a person, but he did not regard him as the kind of leader he would like to see in liberated France. Regardless of how deep self-determination constituted a principle in men's affairs, the President was prepared to overlook it in two of the Big Four who were to maintain order in the post-war world Concert. One has to take note that thee antipathy to de Gaulle was purely Rooseveltian. By 1944 every principal adviser, Stimson, McCloy, Marshall, Murphy, even Leahy, encouraged the President to recognize the French Committee of Liberation. 30 Indeed, between 1946 and 1958 the United States had pretty much the sort of French government it could work with. But when de Gaulle returned to power the seeds of wartime disdain and mistrust had sprouted, grown and come to flower. Franco-American relations still remain delicate, tinged with mutual suspicion, cooperating but uncooperative. The legacy of World War II remains. Arthur I. Funk 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. G-inesvill., FL 32605 NOTES 1. The subject of many studies, Roosevelt's relations with de Gaulle have been most recently analyzed in Julian G. Hurstfield, America, and the French Nation, 1939-1945 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1986). See especially pp. 225-40, "Franklin Roosevelt: A Retrospect." For earlier analyses see Arthur L. Funk, Charles de Gaulle: The Crucial Years, 1943-44 (Norman, Okla., 1959); Milton Viorst, Hostile Allies (N.Y., 1965); Raoul d'Aglion, De Gaulle et Roosevelt (Paris, 1984). On de Gaulle, of primary importance are his Memoires de Guerre, 3 vols. (Paris, 1954 ff.). For recent biographies see Nikolai Molchanov, Charles de Gaulle (Russian edition, Moscow, 1980; English edition, Moscow, 1985); Jean Lacouture, Charles de Gaulle, Vol. I (Paris, 1984). Regarding Churchill, besides his own memoirs (see note 17 below), significant studies include Elizabeth Barker, Churchill and Eden at War (N.Y., 1978), 68-102, and Frangois Kersaudy, Churchill and de Gaulle (N.Y., 1982), 231-319 (for 1943). 2. Roosevelt to Marshall, 2 June 1944 (Map Room, FDR Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.). See also FDR Memorandum, 8 May 1943, and editor's commentary, in Warren Kimball (ed.), Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (Princeton, N.J., 1984), II, 208-10; FDR conversation with Edwin Wilson, 24 Mar., 1944 (U.S. National Archives, RG 59, 851.00/3185 1/2). 3. Memo of conversation, Soviet Ambassador to Turkey, 3 Aug. 1941, in em p i I -_ rr. : Sovetsko-Frantsuzkie Otnosheniia .(Soviet-French Relations during the time of the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945) (Moscow, 1959), No. 2. Hereafter cited as SFO. 4. Maisky to de Gaulle, 26 Sept. 1941, SFO, No. 6. 5. De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 36; Charles de Gaulle, Discours et Messages, 1940- 1946(Paris, 1946), 181-83. 6. Conversation of Vyshinsky and Garreau, 20 May 1942, SFO, No. 28. 7. Conversation of Molotov and Garreau, 24 May 1942, SFO, No. 29. De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 248. 8. Direct contact was made principally by LCDR Tracy B. Kittredge. 9. Foreign Relations of the United States (Washington, DC, 1961 ff.), 1941 II, 573, 578, 583. Hereafter cited as FRUS. 10. On the invasion of North Africa, see Arthur L. Funk, The Politics of TORCH (Lawrence, Kansas, 1974). 11. Communique of the Soviet Government and the French Committee of National Liberation, 29 Sept. 1942, SFO, No. 41. 12. Alfred J. Rieber, Stalin and the French Communist Party, 1941-47 (New York, 1962), 51-57. Arthur L Funk 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. Gainesville, FL 32605 Notes 2 13. Maisky to Moscow, 1 Oct. 1941, SFO, No. 10; Bogomolov to Moscow, 22 Jan. 1942, SFO, No. 17; Maisky to Moscow, 29 Jan. 1942, SFO, No. 18; Bogomolov to Moscow, 26 Sept. 1942, SFO, No. 40. 14. Dejean to de Gaulle, 7 Aug. 1942, De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 348. 15. See Funk, Politics of TORCH and works cited in Note 1. For the reactions of the American and British representatives in North Africa see, respectively, Robert Murphy, Diplomat among Warriors (N.Y., 1964), Harold Macmillan, The Blast of War (N.Y. 1967). 16. Comments ma the armament program are based essentially on Marcel Vigneras, Rearming the French (Washington, D.C., 1957). 17. Winston Churchill, The Second World War, V, Closing the Ring (Boston, 1951), 90, 172-86, 651. 18. Bogamolov to Garreau, 11 May 1943, SFO, No. 55. 19. De Gaulle describes a protest by Bogomolov in March 1944 regarding economic relations with the Polish Government-in-Exile,in M'moires, II, 208. 20. Churchill to Stalin, 23 June 1943, in Correspondence between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidents of the USA and the Prime Ministers of Britain (Moscow, 1957), I, 136; Stalin to Churchill, 26 June 1943, ibid., 139-40. Kerr to Molotov, 15 June 1943, SFO, No. 60; Molotove to Kerr, 19 June 1943, SFO, No. 65; Kerr to Molotov 23 June 1943, SFO, No. 69; Vyshinsky memo, 23 June 1943, SFO, No. 71. 21. Details of the recognition problem can be found in Funk, De Gaulle, 148-76, and in French in Revue d'histoire de la 2e guerre mondiale (Jan., 1959), 37-48. See also The Memoirs of Cordell Hull (N.Y., 1948), II, 1226-41. 22. On Quebec, see FRUS: Conferences at Washington and Quebec (Washington, 1963); editorial note and documents in Kimball led.), Churchill and Roosevelt, 429-40; Churchill, V, 80-97. 23. FRUS, 1943, II, 185; Llewellyn Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War (London, 1962), II, 224. See Churchill's communication to Macmillan, V, 182-83. 24, Funk, De Gaulle, 162. 25. Conversation of Standley and Molotov, 2 July 1943, SFO, No. 76; Gromyko to Moscow, 5 July 1943, 5 July 1943, SFO, No. 78; Conversation of Schmidtleir. and Molotov, 26 Aug., 1943, SFO No. 91. 26. Macmillan, Blast of War, 342. Murphy, Diplomat among Warriors, 205-08. 27. Stalin to FDR and Churchill., 22 Aug. 1943, FRUS, 1943, I, 783. 28. Roosevelt to Stalin, 6 Sept. 1943, FRUS, 1943, I, 784. 29. Stalin to Roosevelt, 12 Sept. 1943, FRUS, 1943, I, 786. Arthtir Funk 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. Gainesville. FL 32605 Notes 3 30. On discussions of the "poltical-military commission," see FRUS, 1943, I, 782-800. Cf. Items No. 104 to 114 (26 Sept. to 30 Oct. 1943) in SFO. 31. De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 142-48. 32.De Gaulle, Discours, 358. In his memoires published in 1956, de Gaulle describes this speech (II, 147)but has no comment on his reference to "la chere et puissante Russie." 33. De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 150-51. 34. A detailed account of the Moscow conference of foreign ministers can be found in Keith Sainsbury, The Turning Point (Oxford and N.Y., 1985), 69-109. On French matters see also FRUS, 1943, I, 604-13, 619-20, 662-65, 710-12, 758-60. Cf. Memoirs of Cordell Hull, II, 1283-1305; Woodward, British Foreign Policy, II, 584-87; Anthony Eden (Earl of Avon), The Reck- oning (London, 1965), 414-181 Murphy, Diplomat among Warriors, 209-10. Curiously, V. Trukhanovsky, in his critical study, Anthony Eden (Russian edition, 1974; English version, Moscow, 1984), does not mention Eden at the Moscow foreign ministers' conference, which is also not referred to. 35. Macmillan, Blast of War, 345; FRUS, 1943, I, 804-05; Conversation of NKVD member with French representative, 29 Oct. 1943, SFO, No. 115; Con- versation of Vyshinsky with Garreau, 6 Nov. 1943, SFO, No. 116. 36. Harry C. Butcher, My Three Years with Eisenhower (N.Y., 1946), 473; De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 674-76. 37. De Gaulle, Memoires, III, 62-83. It is interesting that de Gaulle's Soviet biographer, Nikolai Molchanov, describes the treaty from de Gaulle's point of view, and rather guardedly shares the cynical view here expressed. After citing de Gaulle's enthusiasm at being regarded as a major power, Mol- chanov writes: "It is different matter that these new perspectives opened up by the Franco-Soviet treaty later proved to be cancelled out by the anti- Communist tendencies of the French ruling circles (215)". Again, "De Gaulle's foreign policy gradually lost the integrity and clarity it had during the war Now [Sept. 1945], a Western bloc with a clearly anti-Soviet purpose was on the agenda (218)." Discussion of these issues lies, un- fortunately, outside the parameters of this paper. 38. Exchanges between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin (Churchill, VI, 258-60. 39. De Gaulle, Memoires, III, 58. 40. Murphy, Diplomat among Warriors, 66-117. 41. FRUS, 1942, II, 313, 345. 42. Discussion of economic programs is based on James J. Dougherty, The Politics of Wartime Aid (Westport, Conn., 1978) and Jean Monnet, M&moires (Paris, 1977). 43. De Gaulle, Memoires, II, 236-41, Monnet, Memoires, 247-48. 44. FRUS, 1945, IV, 795; 1944, III, 748-63; Dougherty, Wartime Aid, 231-32. Arthiur V. Funk E/2 3445 N.W. 30th Blvd. SAGainesville, FL 32605 |