740.0011 European War 1939/3790: Telegram
The Deputy Ambassador in France (Biddle) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:25 p.m.]
13. For the President. I called on Reynaud at 8:15 this morning prior to the receipt of the President’s message contained in telegram No. 1, June 13.
Reynaud handed me the following document requesting that it be transmitted to you immediately. This message he said was obviously confidential. He added, however, that if you found it advisable it could be divulged in secret sessions of the appropriate Senate and House Committees.
“Mr. President: I thank you for having published in America the message I sent you on June 10. I told you then that for 6 days and 6 nights our troops had been fighting without an hour of respite, and at 1 against 3, with war material 5 times less powerful.
Four days of bloody fighting have gone by since then. Our Army is now cut into several parts. Our divisions are decimated. Generals are commanding battalions. The Reichswehr has just entered Paris. We are going to attempt to withdraw our exhausted forces in order to fight new battles. It is doubtful, since they are at grips with an enemy which is constantly throwing in fresh troops, that this can be accomplished.
At the most tragic hour of its history France must choose.
Will she continue to sacrifice her youth into a hopeless struggle?
Will her Government leave the national territory so as not to give itself up to the enemy and in order to be able to continue the struggle on the sea and in North Africa? Will the whole country then live abandoned abating itself under the shadow of Nazi domination with all that that means for its body and its soul?
Or will France ask Hitler for conditions of an armistice?
We can choose the first way, that of resistance, only if a chance of victory appears in the distance and if a light shines at the end of the tunnel.
[Page 253]In the present situation in spite of the weakening of the enemy’s forces due to the sacrifice of the French Army the defeat of England, our loyal ally, left to her own resources, appears possible if not probable.
From that time on France can continue the struggle only if American intervention reverses the situation by making an Allied victory certain.
The only chance of saving the French nation, vanguard of democracies, and through her to save England, by whose side France could then remain with her powerful Navy, is to throw into the balance, this very day, the weight of American power.
It is the only chance also of keeping Hitler, after he has destroyed France, and then England, from attacking America thus renewing the fight of the Horatii against the three Curiatii.
I know that the declaration of war does not depend on you alone.
But I must tell you at this hour, so grave in our history as in yours, that if you cannot give to France in the hours to come the certainty that the United States will come into the war within a very short time, the fate of the world will change. Then you will see France go under like a drowning man and disappear, after having cast a last look towards the land of liberty from which she awaited salvation. Signed Paul Reynaud.”
Reynaud was in a state of profound depression and anxiety. He stated that an immediate reply to the above message was of the most vital importance not only to the future of France but the future of all democratic countries. He emphasized the fact that the possible collapse of the French Armies was a question not of days but of hours. The single hope of France and in his opinion England rested in immediate declaration of war by the United States. Only in such event would it be possible for the French Armies to continue the struggle from Northern Africa.
According to his most recent information France’s Army had been cut into several separate bodies by the German motorized columns. These armies were retreating independently of each other without effective liaison. Each group was endeavoring to keep itself intact: one group was retreating towards Brittany, one towards the center of France, and one towards Dijon. Although these groups were fighting with almost superhuman courage the retreat was being carried out under unbelievably difficult circumstances. German planes were constantly bombing the lines of communication. In some cases the explosive charges which the French Army had placed under the bridges to destroy them after their retreat had been detonated by German bombs and a considerable amount of artillery and other valuable equipment thus had had to be abandoned.
He emphasized that the situation in which the French Army now found itself was worse than the situation of the German Army when it surrendered in 1918.
[Page 254]In the meeting of the Council of Ministers last evening Reynaud had been able only with the greatest difficulty to obtain their consent to continue the struggle. He solemnly declared that an affirmative reply to the above message was the only basis upon which France could continue the fight; in the absence of a declaration of war by the United States there was no hope for the future. France would be destroyed and her youth annihilated.
It was clear to me that in the absence of some positive action by us within the next 48 hours the French Government will feel that there is no course left but surrender. He pleaded for some word from you tonight.
I am now proceeding to Bordeaux with … code but the unbelievable condition of the roads is such that the hour and even day of my arrival is uncertain. At Reynaud’s suggestion, therefore, any message should be sent in … to the Consul at Bordeaux5 with instructions for immediate delivery to him. I am trying to telephone the Consul.
- Henry S. Waterman.↩