740.0011 European War 1938/37285/6: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 15—7 p.m.]
1678. Personal for the President.
“10:45 p.m., 15th June, 1940. President of the United States from Former Naval Person.
Since sending you my message this afternoon6 I have heard that Monsieur Reynaud, in a telegram which he has just sent to you, has practically said that the decision of France to continue the war from overseas depends on your being able to assure the French Government that the United States of America will come into the war at a very early date.
When I sent you my message just now I did not know that Monsieur Reynaud had stated the dilemma in these terms, but I am afraid there is no getting away from the fact that this is the choice before us now.
Indeed, the British Ambassador in Bordeaux tells me that if your reply does not contain the assurance asked for, the French will very quickly ask for an armistice, and I much doubt whether it will be possible in that event for us to keep the French fleet out of German hands.
When I speak of the United States entering the war I am, of course, not thinking in terms of an expeditionary force, which I know is out of the question. What I have in mind is the tremendous moral effect that such an American decision would produce not merely in France but also in all the democratic countries of the world and in the opposite sense of the German and Italian peoples.”
- Presumably telegram No. 1677, June 15, 1940, 9 p.m., Vol. iii, p. 53.↩