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From London, de Gaulle was coordinating the resistance <strong>movement</strong>s<br />

inside <strong>of</strong> France with, among others, the collaboration at arms length <strong>of</strong><br />

General de La Laurencie who was secretly supported in France by the<br />

Deuxieme Bureau. La Laurencie was a close friend <strong>of</strong> Petain, but an<br />

opponent <strong>of</strong> the German collaboration, who had been directed to create a<br />

resistance group called the "{Friends <strong>of</strong> the Marshal.}" Petain, himself, is<br />

said to have approved <strong>of</strong> the group! The purpose <strong>of</strong> the group was "to set up<br />

a complete government organization in skeleton and prepare military units to<br />

aid British landing parties." (Langer, Op. Cit., p.165.)<br />

As demonstrated by Langer, the maintaining <strong>of</strong> the connection to the<br />

Vichy government was "eminently worth while" especially because <strong>of</strong> the<br />

help this would bring to the resistance forces in France. A case in point was<br />

the role <strong>of</strong> General Revers, the chief <strong>of</strong> staff <strong>of</strong> the "armistice army" who, in<br />

fact, was also the clandestine leader <strong>of</strong> the {Ordre de Resistance de<br />

l'Armee}. As Langer emphasized: "They continued to operate a Deuxieme<br />

Bureau and to build up an army staff in secret. They laid plans for the<br />

organization <strong>of</strong> new divisions for the day when British or American forces<br />

might land in France, and they encouraged resistance groups not only in<br />

training, but also in the clandestine manufacture <strong>of</strong> weapons. Most <strong>of</strong> this<br />

activity was carried on, with the knowledge <strong>of</strong> Petain and with his blessing."<br />

(Langer, Op. Cit., p.172.)<br />

In the spring <strong>of</strong> 1941, the Deuxieme Bureau opened a secret channel<br />

with the United States through the French Embassy in Washington. A<br />

significant number <strong>of</strong> the French Embassy staff, who were strongly pro-<br />

American gave important intelligence to the United States Army, including<br />

timely warnings concerning German activities on the continent. Some <strong>of</strong><br />

those collaborators even paid with their lives later. This particular group <strong>of</strong><br />

Vichy Foreign Office <strong>of</strong>ficials presented to the State Department a relevant<br />

memorandum, dated October 1941, probably based on reports from the first<br />

secretary <strong>of</strong> the United States Embassy at Vichy, H. Freeman Mathews.<br />

It is important to understand the nature <strong>of</strong> this active Vichy-American<br />

collaboration, because it illustrates well the issue, discussed in a previous<br />

report, <strong>of</strong> the difference between {belief} and {knowledge}. The horrendous<br />

events <strong>of</strong> the German invasion <strong>of</strong> El Alamein, in May 1942 had provoked a<br />

number <strong>of</strong> very tough public statements made public by State Secretary<br />

Hull, among others, in condemning the Vichy government for its outrageous<br />

collaboration with the Germans. The reaction in the U.S. by the populist<br />

120

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