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  4. Document 773

740.0011 European War 1939/11820: Telegram

The Ambassador in France ( Leahy ) to the Secretary of State
Vichy , June 9, 1941—6 p.m.
[Received June 10—12:11 a.m.]

660. This morning’s press of course contains little’but sensationally head-lined accounts of events in Syria. Marshal Pétain’s98 message to the French in the Levant has been prominently published on all front pages as have the several bitter communiqués against the De Gaullists and the British. The attack on Syria is characterized as a natural sequel to previous actions of the perpetrators of Mers-el-Kebir, Dakar, Gabon and Sfax. The directives to the press, copies of which we have obtained, instruct the papers to develop arguments in their editorial columns emphasizing the four following points:

1.
That the Syrian affair was undertaken only after Iraq was finished and the “occasional flights of German aeroplanes” in transit had been terminated; the bombardment of Syrian aerodromes had provoked no military reaction on the part of France. It is to be emphasized that there are “no German troops” in Syria.
2.
To remind the public of the “campaign of lies” of the British Government to convince the world of German troop landings in Syria as a justification for British intervention. The words of the Marshal on the radio have destroyed all these legends.
3.
That “Admiral Darlan saw. perfectly clearly the British game which he unmasked in irrefutable terms in his message of May 31” (certain paragraphs from Darlan’s declarations to the press are reprinted in these instructions to help the editors).
4.
That the French who fight in Syria are fighting not only through discipline and to obey their leaders but to stand by the French Empire: “They fight thus as Frenchmen defending their country. They struggle also to obtain for their country an honorable peace. Each soldier who fights and falls in that far off land drenched with French blood gives one more argument for France to refind the place in Europe which is her due”.

While it is difficult to evaluate as yet the reactions of the general public there is no evidence that these efforts of the press and radio to stir the people up to the desired pitch of indignation have succeeded. While the people seem to be somewhat confused there is no evidence of excitement in Vichy today nor, as far as we can ascertain, in Lyon or Marseille.

Leahy
  1. Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, French Chief of State.↩