President Roosevelt to the British Prime Minister (Churchill)5
546. For the Former Naval Person. Your 684 and 6856 received.
I do want to make this de Gaulle matter clear from my point of view beyond peradventure of a doubt.
Less than a week ago, on May 25th, Admiral Fénard said goodbye on his way to see de Gaulle in Algiers. We had a very satisfactory talk and I think he is a first class man in every way, besides being Senior Officer of the French Navy.
He asked me if I had any message for de Gaulle. I told him that I had been hoping for a message from de Gaulle to me asking if I would see him if he came over here and that he could tell de Gaulle that if I received such a message my answer would be an immediate and cordial affirmative.
I explained to him, as I thought I had made the whole matter clear to many people before, that as the head of the Government and the head of the State I could not well invite de Gaulle to come, as the latter is only the head of a Committee and is not the head of the French [Page 694] Government or the French State. Fénard was in complete accord, and that message ought to have been delivered to de Gaulle by now.
I feel very strongly that in his position he, in person and through nobody else, should ask if he will be received. This is simple, straightforward, and the reply would be expressed in cordial terms.
Now as to your 682,6a in further reply, of course you and I must do everything possible to encourage the French national spirit and to get it working with us at top speed in the immediate future.
We do not know definitely what the state of that French spirit is and we will not know until we get to France, but we hope for the best.
Marshall will be with you about D plus 4. We cannot give him plenary powers to negotiate with de Gaulle singly or with you and de Gaulle jointly, because this is wholly a matter in the political and not in the military field. Marshall can, of course, talk about all military matters.
My suggestion is that after you talk with de Gaulle that he should ask me whether I would see him if he came here direct from London. Meanwhile you could send me a summary of your talks with him and we can be in complete accord by the time he reaches here.
As a matter of practical fact, the French military strength could not be used on Overlord until then anyway. All plans are for later than D-Day.
I think I can only repeat the simple fact that I cannot send anyone to represent me at the de Gaulle conversations with you.
I should like very much to accept Dr. Churchill’s advice to make a sea voyage in your direction and I hope to do so at a later date. Conditions here will not permit it shortly after D plus 14 as suggested, by you.
Developments of the Overlord campaign should point with some accuracy to the time when a meeting of the Combined Staff is necessary. I think we had best await developments of Overlord before making a decision as to the next full Staff meeting.