740.0011 European War 1939/28558/28: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 28—9:30 a.m.]
915. Personal for the President. Paul Reynaud asked to see me urgently at 11 o’clock this morning.
[Page 234]I called on him at the Ministry of War. He said that he wished to consult me with regard to an appeal to you by the King of England and the President of France. He had written out one sentence of this appeal which began: “The armies fighting to preserve the liberties of the world have been stabbed in the back.”
He then rose and said: “I will should [show?] you what the situation is.”
He showed me the positions on the map which had been held by the Belgian Army. They ran from the seacoast past Bruges almost down to the French frontier.
He said that as soon as the Belgians laid down their arms a German armored division drove for Dunkirk. As a result the whole British Army and the finest French Army were totally cut off from supplies of food and munitions. Their situation was desperate. They would fight until the last cartridge. They could do nothing but die well.
As soon as they should be destroyed all the German armored divisions would descend on Paris striking probably from Laon and probably not even bothering to sweep first on Rouen and Havre.
The French Army would fight to the bitter end but it seemed certain that the end would be bitter and rapid.
At this moment when all that was decent in the world was threatened he felt obliged to address a supreme appeal to you. Enough evidence had accumulated to make it absolutely certain that if France and England should be conquered by the Germans, Hitler would move almost immediately against the United States. The fact was that the act of the King of the Belgians had been a knife-thrust that might be fatal not only to France and England but also to America. Under the circumstances he felt that the President of France and the King of England must address today a message to you.
I replied that it was obviously the right of the British sovereign and the President of France to address you at such a moment; but that I advised him before cabling such a message to have the British Government communicate immediately with Lord Lothian who could advise the British Government and French Government better than anyone else just what should be said and what should not be said. He promised me that he would have the British Government consult Lothian immediately and that no action would be taken before consulting Lothian.
Reynaud then went on to say that he knew perfectly well that even though the United States should declare war on Germany tomorrow we could not fly an army to France in airplanes which did not exist but there was our fleet. He implored me to ask you to order the Atlantic fleet at once to the Mediterranean. This act might at least prevent another stab in the back from Mussolini.