Word: darlan
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Strategic Retreat. The crisis in Franco-German relations had come at last. It had been brewing since December, when the Marshal dismissed Pierre Laval-a politician of the sort that Adolf Hitler can deal with. The Marshal's trusted aide, Admiral Jean Darlan, was in Paris conferring with Laval and with Hitler's Ambassador, Otto Abetz. Admiral Darlan was empowered to offer Laval reinstatement in the Government on an equal footing with himself and War Minister General Charles Huntziger, the Marshal retaining supreme authority. That was the Marshal's strategic withdrawal to positions he had previously prepared...
...demand he offered tempting concessions on the part of the German conqueror. More war prisoners would be released. The cost of occupation would be reduced from $8,000,000 to $3,600,000 a day. The boundaries of unoccupied France might be extended, possibly to include Paris. Admiral Darlan took a train back to Vichy, half won over to Laval's cause...
...earlier the Marshal had called Admiral Darlan. General Huntziger and Foreign Minister Pierre Etienne Flandin together for a meeting of his Ministerial Council. Flandin opposed and Darlan got into an argument over the extent of collaboration that should be offered to Germany. The Marshal held to his stand that collaboration should be offered, but that it must be within the terms of the Armistice. On Laval's demands he was obdurate. Laval might return to a "Ministry of State as a member of a committee"-nothing more. Admiral Darlan went back to Paris with this offer in his pocket...
VICHY--Admiral Jean Francois Darlan tonight became French vice-premier and foreign minister in a stop-gap cabinet shakeup which is expected to pave the way for Pierre Laval's early return to power in the Vichy regime...
What happened next depended on the stiffness of the Marshal's spine. He sent his new No. 2 man, Admiral Jean Darlan, to Paris to try to soften Hitler's demands. The Admiral had no sooner arrived than he stated flatly: "I affirm that the French Fleet is absolutely and will remain under complete French jurisdiction and that it will defend the Empire against any challenge whatsoever." But Admiral Darlan had authority to agree to Laval's reinstatement provided Marshal Pétain retained supreme power...