Word: darlan
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...supposedly being fought for liberty, justice and freedom, Darlan posed a knotty question for the Allies: How far can a policy of military opportunism be allowed to go without sound political planning...
...only was Eisenhower's luncheon date with Darlan a tantamount acknowledgment of the new setup, but he gave it further weight by a public statement: "All Frenchmen worthy of their country's great past have forgotten their small differences of ideas." To Darlan, who still maintains the fiction of acting for Marshal Petain in France, there came messages of support from a scattering of French colonies. A message from Boisson's own West African native group, the Legion of Black Africa, ended with the salutation: "Vive le Marechal [Petain], Vive la France...
...opportunist in an opportunists' market, Darlan had emerged as more than a "temporary expedient" useful to Allied invasion forces. Fortnight ago Washington diplomats were hinting that he was on his way out (after the "delivering" of Dakar and the scuttling of the French Fleet). But as "Chief of State," Darlan has control of 300,000 native troops-commanded by French officers and a firm grasp on civil administration...
...Future. Darlan was a useful military tool. What he represents in political warfare is another question. "A monumental piece of effrontery" was the verdict of the Fighting French. General Georges Catroux, Fighting French High Commissioner for Syria and Lebanon, bitterly demanded that Darlan's power-grab "be ended quickly." He charged that there were grave dangers to Allied communication lines when "under control of a man like Darlan...
Britain's House of Commons took a poor view of the situation. M.P.s cheered at the announcement that Britain did not consider herself bound by the Darlan-Eisenhower agreements. Dourly, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden explained that Darlan's assumption of power, "as far as I know . . . was a unilateral inspiration of Admiral Darlan himself...