He entertained the possibility of forming a new state, “Wallonia,” which would consist of the Walloon parts of northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine. FDR had no need for de Gaulle, or so he thought.Īpart from the regime question, the President had reservations about the viability of the French state. While it is true that Roosevelt was quite willing initially to deal with such non-republican sorts as Pétain and even Stalin, he needed them Pétain, for example, seemed to hold the key to North Africa in the early years of the war, and FDR expected to attack German troops there, with Vichy French support. I can’t imagine a man I would distrust more.” ( As He Saw It, 73). FDR is quoted as saying: “de Gaulle is out to achieve one-man government in France. (Elliot Roosevelt, ed.: F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947, 3 vols., III 555.)Īccording to Elliot, his father suspected that de Gaulle was another Boulanger or neo- Bonapartist, who intended to use the war as a springboard to dictatorship. This optimism, I must frankly confess, has little foundation because of several well-known incidents in the past one hundred fifty years where revolution or its equivalent and the emergence of some strong individuals have proven the only salvation. In more pessimistic moments I have of necessity come to believe just as you do about France and the French future-yet always say to myself that in previous parties France has always ‘snapped out’ of it. He took the collapse to confirm the instability and weakness of the French political community, which had endured several regime changes since 1789. Asked to account for FDR’s great antipathy toward the Frenchman, we queried Hillsdale’s Professor Emeritus William Morrisey, author of Churchill and De Gaulle: The Geopolitics of Liberty.Īccording to Elliott Roosevelt in his book, As He Saw It (New York, 1946), Franklin Roosevelt distrusted de Gaulle for three reasons: one having to do with the status of the French empire, another with the status of the French regime, and a third involving the shape of the French state after World War II.įDR was shocked by the sudden defeat of France in 1940. Featured Image: All was forgiven as France celebrated the 70th anniversary of Victory (Stalin and Churchill also appeared in this set of commemorative stamps.)Īntoine Capet’s review of the Churchill Document Volume 20, Normandy and Beyond, takes as a case study Churchill’s extreme efforts to placate President Roosevelt on the role General de Gaulle would play during the liberation of France.
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