France's role in World War Two is debatable

To the Editor,

I appreciated Simon Heffer's assessment of the recent film on Charles de Gaulle's wartime activities. 

What I learned from the film was the source of the mistrust between President Roosevelt and General de Gaulle.

Roosevelt regarded France as a defeated and conquered country as of 1940. Hence France had no right to a voice in shaping the post-war settlement.

De Gaulle admitted France was defeated but refused to accept that it was conquered.

In his view, France therefore remained a credible ally with a right to determine its own future and the future of post-war Europe. 

I think both sides were right. The Free French under de Gaulle continued the fight against Germany, especially in North Africa and behind the lines via the Resistance.

It is hard to disagree with Mr Heffer, however, on de Gaulle's claim that the French liberated Paris.

A mere glance at the allied war cemeteries in Normandy should have been enough to discredit that idea.

There is an anecdote, whose veracity I cannot vouch for, relating to de Gaulle's withdrawal of France from NATO's command structure after the war and his order to US forces to quit French soil.

US Secretary of State Dean Rusk, who was present at de Gaulle's remarks, reportedly pointed to a nearby American war cemetery and asked him whether he meant those men as well. According to the anecdote, de Gaulle had no response.

All of this should be understood against the background that it was France who defeated the German army in World War One and that the Allies then took their sweet time to come to France's relief under Nazi occupation.

The sources of this French frustration with England and America during World War Two are seldom foregrounded in the modern historiography of that period.

D.C.M., Haute-Garonne

Has living in France - or the new film - changed your view of Charles de Gaulle? Share your thoughts at letters@connexionfrance.com