President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)2

Personal No. 250 from the President to the Former Naval Person.

In reply to your 2493 I feel very strongly that we have a military occupation in North Africa and as such our Commanding General has complete charge of all matters civil as well as military. We must not let any of our French friends forget this for a moment. By the same token I don’t want any of them to think that we are going to recognize any one or any committee or group as representing the French Government or the French Empire. The people of France will settle their own affairs after we have won this war. Until then we can deal with local Frenchmen on a local basis wherever our armies occupy former French territory. And if these local officials won’t play ball we will have to replace them.

I agree that Eisenhower has had to spend too much time on political affairs but Marshall4 has sent him very explicit instructions on this point. I don’t know whether Eisenhower can hold Giraud5 in line [Page 24] with another Frenchman running the civil affairs but I shall find out. Why doesn’t De Gaulle6 go to war? Why doesn’t he start North by West half West from Brazenville? It would take him a long time to get to the Oasis of Somewhere.

A happy new year to you and yours.

Roosevelt
  1. Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. Notation on telegram indicates it was sent also to Lt. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, with second paragraph omitted except for second sentence. General Eisenhower was Commanding General, European Theater of Operations, and Commander in Chief, Allied Expeditionary Force, North Africa.
  2. Telegram No. 249, December 31, 1942, filed in Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. In addition to discussing military matters, Mr. Churchill stated that the Allied Commander in Chief should be supreme in Northwest Africa in all matters civil and military, but that a civil regime should be set up in whatever form was found locally convenient, subject to the guidance and veto of Mr. Robert D. Murphy, Personal Representative of President Roosevelt, and Mr. Harold Macmillan, British Minister Resident at Allied Headquarters.
  3. Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
  4. Gen. Henri Honoré Giraud, High Commissioner of French North Africa.
  5. Gen Charles de Gaulle, President of the French National Committee in London.