You will, I am sure, realise that His Majesty's Government are under quite definite and solemn obligations to de Gaulle and his Movement.
Churchill's telegram elicited one of the few genuinely personal responses from Roosevelt:
President to Prime Minister 12 Nov 42
I am very happy with the latest news of your splendid campaign in Egypt...
In regard to de Gaulle, I have hitherto enjoyed a quiet satisfaction in leaving him in your hands. Apparently I have now acquired a similar problem in brother Giraud...there is also a cat-fight in progress between Giraud and Darlan...
The principal thought to be driven home to all three of these prima donnas is that...any decision by any...or...all of them, is subject to review and approval by Eisenhower.
In the event, Ike chose Admiral Darlan on good military grounds. The political optics of the choice however were very bad. Darlan had lately directed Vichy fighting against both the Americans and British. Public opinion in both countries, but especially in Britain, was outraged. The choice of Darlan also, of course, pissed off Giraud and de Gaulle--because they were French. That elicited dueling aphorisms from Roosevelt to Churchill and from Darlan to General Mark Clark.
President to Prime Minister 20 Nov 42
I told the Press yesterday in confidence an old Orthodox Church proverb used in the Balkans that appears applicable to our present Darlan-de Gaulle problem: 'My children, it is permitted you in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.'
Darlan to Clark:
Monsieur le Général ,
Information from various sources tends to substantiate the view that I am 'only a lemon which the Americans will drop after they have squeezed it dry.'
The lemon was dropped on December 24, 1942 when a French partisan who "had worked himself into an exalted state of mind as the saviour of France" shot Darlan dead. The heavens did not darken with his passing.
*Updated 2/26/20 with Darlan's assassination. The words in the title are de Gaulle's own. The communications are taken from The Second World War, Winston Churchill, "The Hinge of Fate (508, 512, 513, 518)
