France and the United States, Allies in War

Abstract

General de Gaulle transformed the Free French from a minor committee in London into France’s provisional government in the face of enormous obstacles. These included President Roosevelt, who planned to impose an Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) in France, replacing the German occupation and the Vichy regime with an Anglo-American occupation. This never happened because it was vigorously opposed not only by de Gaulle but also by the Allied military chief who would have been responsible for it, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower had faced this same dilemma in French North Africa in 1942 and had managed to avoid assuming responsibility for governing French domains. He replicated this modus vivendi in France in 1944.