Download or read book Our Vichy Gamble written by William L. Langer and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2024-10-11 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Dr. Langer, Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard, is one of the foremost diplomatic historians of our day. During the war he was head of the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services. While serving in this capacity he was invited by Secretary Hull to prepare an account of American policy toward France from May 1940 to the assassination of Darlan on Christmas Eve of 1942. Abundant, though not complete, documentation was placed at his disposal and he talked with many of the principals in the drama. The exciting story as he so ably tells it is substantially a justification of the Roosevelt-Hull policy vis-à-vis Vichy and de Gaulle, primarily on grounds of strategy.” — Foreign Affairs “Our policy towards Vichy France documented by an historian in considerable detail... his material based on official papers of the U.S. government made available for the first time. Here was the policy more criticized than any other — largely on ideological, liberal grounds. He examines the development of our relations with France, following its defeat, through the Reynaud short-lived resistance, Laval’s revolution and the Laval-Hitler meetings, the Gaullist movement and our inability to recognize de Gaulle as long as we did not want an overt break with Vichy, the Giraud negotiations, the North African landings and Giraud’s failure, Darlan’s succession and assassination. All this illustrates a policy of political and military expediency, an opportunism which was sensible only inasmuch as it succeeded.” — Kirkus “Professor Langer effectively lists the gains from our Vichy policy: It enabled us to keep contact with official France and loyal Frenchmen. Our Vichy contacts were of inestimable value to our military intelligence service. Our policy helped to save much of the French colonial empire. It kept North Africa free from the Germans and opened the way to later Allied invasion. The presence of Admiral Leahy in Vichy strengthened the hand of Pétain in achieving these results... None of these gains would have been forthcoming had we broken off diplomatic relations with France or wholeheartedly supported the de Gaulle faction. We may fairly say that Professor Langer’s volume puts to rout for all time the critics of our Vichy policy... a work of notable scholarship, courage, and integrity.” —The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science “A monumental historical contribution... It will probably remain an indispensable source for all students.” — New York Herald Tribune “[A] book of great importance, excellently organized, and surprisingly well written.” — South Atlantic Quarterly “This... important [volume] presents a lot of vivid experience which will make any one interested in the realistic methods of statescraft do a lot of thinking.” — World Affairs “[A]n important contribution to the historiography of the Second World War... Professor Langer had the almost unrestricted use of the files of both the State Department and the Office of Strategic Services... [which] makes for the unusual interest of the book.” — The American Journal of International Law “Professor Langer’s latest work maintains and indeed increases the high reputation earned by his scholarly volumes... [a] fascinating and powerful work.” — The American Historical Review “An informed and judicious appraisal of United States foreign policy... reaches the well-considered conclusion that the State Department followed a wise and prudent course, the effect is little short of sensational.” — Middle East Journal “An outstanding diplomatic historian here turns his hand to a readable, much-needed, and sober account of the cause of the hottest foreign policy controversy in recent years — our relations with the tainted Vichy regime in France from 1940 to 1943.” — The American Political Science Review