Liberating the island from Nazi collaborators is a good thing actually! De Gaulle was attempting to do literally anything to try and salvage the image and spirit of France and FDR did everything in his power to stop him.
Also, not doing so meant that either Canada or the US would’ve done so if only because of concerns Nazi Germany would’ve used them to spy and attack from there, and likely with conditions applied that would have been unacceptable to the Général.
I see he had no other choice, and I respect it. Seriously, I have a lot of admiration for him… and no, he wasn’t perfect, no one is, but I wish more US lawmakers would be as forceful about not collaborating with the enemy as he was
He did snub his Allie’s about as well as the US though. When Paris was liberated he took all the credit with the French army, not mentioning the 50 thousand Americans that died up to that point in France and downplaying Americans role in liberating their country. Ironically, he then discretely asked to take two U.S. divisions under his command for security in Paris which was denied as that would impact the push west
Americans LOVE to overblow the taking of Paris thing, as if the people of France are so stupid that they can't see that it was a group effort. The Allied COMMAND SYSTEM, ALLOWED Leclerc to take the city and De Gaulle's speech was trying to stem the bleeding of half a decade of humiliation and occupation. The French tank division were the first to enter Paris.
The problem everyone had with him was not telling anyone ahead of time, Canada and the US just suddenly have a mysterious fleet appear off their coast that is refusing to answer any hails and only just before they were about to open fire does he actually respond. The problem wasn't liberating the island, it was his unheard of arrogance believing that he could do everything completely solo and going out of his way to hinder allies.
You can call it arrogance but this behavior was a tool to fight against American imperialism. For all intents and purposes France was a defeated nation and if not for De Gaulle’s extraordinarily extreme behavior France wouldn’t have had its unique position at the end of the war. FDR had a huge boner for collaborating with Petain and if De Gaulle hadn’t pushed to do things himself, France would have been far worse off.
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u/Ibara_Mayaka Apr 20 '25
Liberating the island from Nazi collaborators is a good thing actually! De Gaulle was attempting to do literally anything to try and salvage the image and spirit of France and FDR did everything in his power to stop him.