Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/25876f: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson)

Washington, December 9, 1942—6 p.m.

620. Your 482, November 20, 11 p.m., from Moscow.65 You are requested to see Molotov and refer to his conversation with you on November 20 in regard to North Africa. Please inform Molotov that a telegram has been sent66 to General Eisenhower67 and Murphy68 in order that they may seek to clarify to Admiral Darlan69 the attitude of the United States Government. We desire Mr. Molotov to be orally informed of this telegram. It is being simultaneously telegraphed to our Embassy in London in order that the Ambassador may read it to Mr. Churchill. Please read a paraphrase of the following telegram to Mr. Molotov:

“The United States Government fully appreciates the important military contribution which Admiral Darlan has made and is continuing to make in the campaign which began in Africa but which is a prelude to the complete liberation of all French peoples both at home and in the empire from Axis domination and rule. It has been the consistent policy of this Government, expressed on many occasions by the Secretary of State, to welcome the active cooperation of all Frenchmen who desire to resist Axis aggression and the extension, wherever it may be found, of Axis domination and control. It is the common purpose of the United Nations to continue the struggle until the aims of the Atlantic Charter are fulfilled and the peoples of each country are free to express their own will and to decide their future for themselves. Until these purposes are achieved, other considerations must be left for subsequent determination since dispersion of effort must weaken the military unity of purpose. It is in the sense [Page 483] of the foregoing that we feel that Admiral Darlan is continuing to supplement the contribution which he has already made. As long as his efforts are directed to the specific end of resistance to the Axis, we feel he has a definite role and a positive military contribution to make to our united effort consistent with the policy of the United States Government as outlined above. This will not be the case if he devotes his efforts to building up an organization, not directly connected with the military effort, since it must be borne in mind that other Frenchmen are likewise making contributions in the military field of considerable importance whose political aims have likewise never been ‘gone along with’ by this Government. This Government has too great a respect for France and the sovereignty of the French people to attempt to predetermine the choice which the French people will eventually have to make.

“You may further wish to add that any exhortation directed to Frenchmen to support the military effort is timely but to go beyond that into what is primarily a political appeal may now be detrimental to the cause of France.”

Hull
  1. Printed in vol. ii, section under France entitled “Interest of the United States in political and economic conditions in French North Africa.”↩
  2. On December 7, via War Department cable.↩
  3. Dwight D. Eisenhower, at this time Lieutenant General, was Allied Commander in Chief in North Africa.↩
  4. Robert D. Murphy, Chief Civil Affairs Officer at Algiers; United States Political Adviser, staff of Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater; and Personal Representative of President Roosevelt in North Africa with rank of Minister.↩
  5. Adm. Jean Francois Darlan, High Commissioner of French North and West Africa.↩