FDR - Jean Edward Smith [385]
The problem of who would govern liberated France resolved itself. On June 14, with Eisenhower’s acquiescence, de Gaulle landed at Bayeux with members of the provisional government. His reception exceeded all expectations. Local officials appointed by Vichy pledged their allegiance, and the provisional government assumed control. Ike gave his military blessing to the arrangement, calling it essential to secure his rear areas. Civil affairs officers deferred to de Gaulle’s appointees. Whether the United States recognized him or not, de Gaulle was now de facto the chief executive of liberated France.69
Roosevelt adjusted to military reality.70 He invited de Gaulle to Washington but insisted it was not a state visit, and the customary honors were not rendered. De Gaulle stayed in the capital from July 6 to July 9 and then touched down briefly in New York and Canada, where he addressed the Houses of Parliament. Wherever he went, the reception was enthusiastic. FDR might be unwilling to recognize de Gaulle, but it had little effect on the warmth with which he was welcomed.
Aside from the usual round of luncheons and dinners, Roosevelt and de Gaulle met twice privately for extended discussions. De Gaulle also met with Hull (“who acquitted himself of his crushing task with great conscientiousness and distinction of spirit”); Morgenthau (“a great friend of our cause, in charge of a treasury which, for being inexhaustible, was no less subject to his scrupulous ordering”); Marshall (“a bold organizer but a reserved interlocutor, the animating spirit of a war effort and military strategy of global dimensions”); and Leahy (“astonished by the events that had defied his counsels of conformity, surprised to see me there, but persisting in his prejudice”).71
Roosevelt’s discussions with de Gaulle dealt primarily with global matters. The president laid out his plans for a four-power (Britain, China, Russia, and the United States) directorate to settle the world’s postwar problems. “His will to power cloaked itself in idealism,” de Gaulle wrote afterward. “The President, moreover, did not explain matters as a professor setting down principles, nor as a politician who flatters passions and interests. It was by light touches that he sketched his notions, so skillfully that it was difficult to contradict this artist, this seducer, in any categorical way.”
De Gaulle countered by stressing the primacy of Western Europe. “It is the West that must be restored. If it regains its balance, the rest of the world will take it for an example. If it declines, barbarianism will ultimately sweep everything away.” The exchanges were civil, but there was no meeting of minds and little warmth. De Gaulle resented Roosevelt’s reluctance to recognize his government, and Roosevelt did not hide his skepticism about the future of France. “The American President’s remarks ultimately proved to me,” wrote de Gaulle, “that in foreign affairs, logic and sentiment do not weigh heavily in comparison with the realities of power. To regain her place, France must count only on herself.”72
The encounter had one practical consequence: on July 11, while de Gaulle was addressing Parliament in Ottawa, Roosevelt announced he was granting de facto recognition to the FCNL, which, he said, “is qualified to exercise the administration of France.”73 Formal recognition, however, was months away. In mid-August, the Allies landed in southern France, assisted by seven divisions of the French First Army, and still de Gaulle was not recognized. On August 25 de Gaulle entered Paris to a tumultuous welcome and was not recognized. On September 17, Hull, now firmly in de Gaulle’s camp, recommended recognition, but again FDR refused. “The Provisional Government has no direct authority from the people,” he told Hull.