FDR - Jean Edward Smith [358]
* FDR once told the cabinet that the Russians had a habit of sending him “a friendly note on Monday, spitting in his eye on Tuesday, and then being nice again on Wednesday.” The Price of Vision: Diary of Henry A. Wallace, 1942–1946 245, John Morton Blum, ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973).
* Roosevelt, who initially had approved, was subsequently embarrassed when the arrangements Eisenhower had made with Vichy’s representatives were heavily criticized in the United States and Great Britain. On November 7 he cabled Ike:
Marshall has shown me your dispatch giving your reasons for placing [Admiral] Darlan in charge of civil administration of North Africa. I want you to know that I appreciate fully the difficulties of your military situation. I am therefore not disposed to in any way question the action you have taken.…
However I think you should know and have in mind the following policies of this government:
That we do not trust Darlan.
That it is impossible to keep a collaborator of Hitler and the one whom we believe to be a fascist in civil power any longer than is absolutely necessary.
His movements should be watched carefully and his communications supervised.
Darlan was assassinated by a young Gaullist on December 24, 1942, relieving the embarrassment for the Allies. Few believe he acted independently. The text of FDR’s message to Eisenhower was first printed in Robert Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins 654 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948). For the murky details of Darlan’s assassination, see Anthony Verrier, Assassination in Algiers 193–252 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990).
* In mid-February 1943 Rommel’s panzers clobbered the U.S. II Corps at Kasserine Pass. Eisenhower said afterward that the American commanders lacked battlefield experience. “The divisions involved had not had the benefit of intensive training programs.… They were mainly divisions that had been quickly shipped to the United Kingdom. Training was for them a practical impossibility. Commanders and troops showed the effects of this, although there was no lack of gallantry and fortitude.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe 163 (New York: Doubleday, 1948).
TWENTY-FIVE
D-DAY
Almighty God: Our sons this day have set upon a mighty endeavor. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
—FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, JUNE 6, 1944
ROOSEVELT’S FLIGHT TO CASABLANCA marked the first time an American president had flown while in office—and FDR had mixed feelings. He much preferred travel by ship, where the slow pace, the roll of the sea, and the fresh air afforded time to rejuvenate. To minimize the distance over open water on the return leg, the president puddle-jumped from Marrakech to Gambia to Liberia; crossed the South Atlantic to Recife, Brazil; then flew north to Trinidad and Miami, where he boarded a train to Washington. “What do you know,” he cabled Eleanor en route. “Will be back in the United States Saturday evening [January 30, 1943—FDR’s sixty-first birthday]. We should get to Washington by 8 p.m. on Sunday.”1
ER was not at home when Franklin arrived. She had departed the White House Friday for the weekend in New York. But she penned a note: “Welcome home! I can’t be here Sunday night as months ago I agreed to open a series of lectures at Cooper Union but I’ll be home for dinner Monday night.… I have to be gone again for the day Tuesday but will be back Wednesday a.m. I’m terribly sorry not to be home.… Much love and I am so glad you are back.”2
Roosevelt had been away from Washington three weeks.