Editorial Note
No official record of the substance of this conversation has been found. The information set forth above is derived from the Log, ante, p. 533. The conversation appears to have been given over in large measure to a discussion of two memoranda concerned with the political relationship between Giraud and the Anglo-American authorities and with the rearmament of French military forces in North Africa. The texts of these two memoranda, a description of Roosevelt’s annotations thereto, and a brief discussion of some aspects of the conversation are contained in telegram 124, February 1, 1943, from Murphy in Algiers to the Department of State, post, p. 825. According to Elliott Roosevelt (p. 119), Giraud was reluctant to reach an accord with de Gaulle, but eventually agreed to do so. Giraud’s willingness to cooperate with de Gaulle is also mentioned in Hopkins’ account of the meeting recorded in his notes for January 24, post, p. 839. Another account of what appears to be this same conversation appears in Giraud, p. 112.