Anglo-american Policy Towards The Free French (st. Antony's Series)

In beginning any history of Anglo-American relations with the Free French, the first things to be considered are exactly what was Free France and from which circumstances did it emerge. On 10 May 1940 -which coincidentally was the day Churchill became Prime Minister -the Germans invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. From the very start the war went badly for the Allies. Churchill, becoming alarmed at his own ignorance of events, decided to send Sir Edward Louis Spears MP, one of Churchill's closest friends and former chief British liaison officer from World War I, to Paris as his personal representative with the French premier, Paul Reynaud. What Spears discovered in June 1940 gave him a profound shock. His main job was to try to convince the French government to continue resistance, but this proved impossible. Virtually from the time of his arrival in Paris, Spears looked desperately for a second Joan of Arc; someone who could, as he put it, 'Awaken France out of her stupor, exorcise this awful spell, rekindle the sacred fire that once burnt so brightly in the hearts of all her sons'. 1 When Reynaud resigned on 16 June -allowing Marshal Philippe Petain to come to power and ask for an armistice -Spears set out to find someone who was willing to come to London and organise resistance there. All the major figures of the government refused. Most of those who wanted to continue the war were not, in fact, convinced that all possibility of resistance was over as the later, iIlfated voyage of the Massilia shows. 2 Churchill and most English leaders also felt that France might still decide to continue the fight if the armistice terms were too harsh. Spears found only one man, the relatively unknown Under-Secretary of State for defence in the last Reynaud government and brevet general, who shared his vision and who was ready to assume the mantIe of Joan of Arc -Charles de Gaulle. On 17 June 1940 Spears and de Gaulle left Bordeaux, the last refuge of the last government of the Third Republic, to rebegin French resistance in London. So it was that Charles de Gaulle entered the world stage in what may seem to us -who know his later career -a rather improbable role: that of a rebel fleeing France to throw himself into British arms. Much has been made of de Gaulle's early career, of his rebellion against "In June 1940 Charles de Gaulle, the little-known Under-Secretary of Defence in the last undoubtedly legitimate government of the Third French Republic, rejected the Franco-German Armistice and fled to London in order to recreate a Free France. He became the leader of a tiny dissident movement that was almost entirely funded by the British government. However, four years later this movement had grown into the broad-based and popularly supported Provisional Government of France. This amazing transformation took place largely through British and American assistance."--BOOK JACKET. "This book examines how Anglo-American policy toward the Free French was decided and how it was affected by tensions both with the French and between the two English-speaking Allies. It tries to explain the differing attitudes of Britain and the United States and how they were reconciled to shape a more or less common policy. It is also the story of the men who made that policy, and particularly of Churchill, Roosevelt and de Gaulle."--BOOK JACKET This book examines the development of the tiny dissident movement that was Free France in 1940 into a broad-based, popularly supported provisional government. This metamorphosis was to a large extent dependent upon Allied support. Therefore this book discusses the individual attitudes of the British and American governments towards the Gaullist movement and tries to explain why they differed and how their points of view were eventually reconciled. In order to do this both the nature of Gaullism and the tensions in the Anglo-American relationship are considered. G.e. Maguire. In Association With St. Antony's College, Oxford. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 188-196) And Index.