Anglo-American Policy Towards the Free French

In June 1940 Charles de Gaulle, the little-known Under-Secretary of Defence in the last undoubtedly legitimate government of the Third French Republic, rejected the Franco-German Armistice and fled to London in order to recreate a Free France. He became the leader of a tiny dissident movement that was almost entirely funded by the British government. However, four years later this movement had grown into the broad-based and popularly supported Provisional Government of France.

This amazing transformation took place largely through British and American assistance.

This book examines how Anglo-American policy toward the Free French was decided and how it was affected by tensions both with the French and between the two English-speaking Allies. It tries to explain the differing attitudes of Britain and the United States and how they were reconciled to shape a more or less common policy. It is also the story of the men who made that policy, and particularly of Churchill, Roosevelt and de Gaulle.