851.01/3369b: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)8
357. “The Governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, in pursuit of their paramount aim, the defeat of Germany, are determined to bring about the earliest possible [Page 642] liberation of France from her oppressors, and the creation of conditions in which a democratically constituted French Government may be reestablished. The ultimate aim of the three Governments is the free choice by the French people of the government under which they will live.
In conducting military operations in France, and so long as military necessity requires, it is manifest that the Supreme Allied Commander must have supreme authority in order that the prosecution of the war against Germany may be pursued relentlessly with the full cooperation of the French people. It is the intention of the Allies that civil administration shall, in so far as possible, be left to French citizens.
The three Governments are confident that at the proper time all French patriots will rise to the aid of the Allies in ejecting the Nazi oppressors from their land. The Allies and the Supreme Allied Commander will have no dealings or relations with the Vichy regime except for the purpose of abolishing it. No person will be retained or employed in any office by the Allied military authorities who has wilfully collaborated with the enemy or who has acted in a manner inimical to the cause of the United Nations.
The restoration of civil administration in France will be left to the French people in conformity with their traditional love of liberty and independence.
It is the hope of the Allies that the French people, having as their primary objective the freeing of France from Nazi domination, will subordinate political activity to the necessity for unity in ejecting and destroying the enemy.
With these objectives in mind, the Allies will count upon the assistance of all Frenchmen in the maintenance of public order and conditions which will permit the restoration of government by consent of the people.”
- This telegram contains text of proposed statement referred to in telegram 356, supra.↩