Fwd: Truth is the First Casualty of War

[Brad De Long]

>Brad De Long wrote of FDR's support for Darlan over Giraud :
>
>>  Eisenhower always said that it was because the task was to defeat
>>  Hitler as rapidly as possible, and that any actions with other
>>  aims--no matter how meritorious--were subordinated to that end.
>>  Darlan had power and authority, and Eisenhower thought that
>>  installing him as proconsul in North Africa would shave two to four
>>  weeks off the time needed to consolidate the American occupation of
>>  Morocco and Algeria.
>>
>So FDR's opposition to Giraud was unrelated to his opposition to De Gaulle
>-- a figure with enormous power and authority, but who frequently differed
>with the State Department's plans for post-war development?
>
>This is your field, not mine, so I defer conditionally to your erudition.
>But it seems like you're not addressing the possibility that Roosevelt and
>the State Department planners had specific plans for post-war Europe, mostly
>based on perceived U.S. self-interest, which they were willing to pursue in
>both savory and unsavory ways if need be.

Things were a *lot* more compartmentalized than you realize. 
Decisions made on the spot, largely by military commanders, had very 
little to do with what plans for the post-WWII era were being made in 
the State, War, and Navy Building.

Indeed, the usual criticism is that the Theater Commanders did not 
pay *enough* attention to what was going to follow the end of the 
war--and that as a result the Iron Curtain fell a couple of hundred 
miles further to the west than might have been the case...

Brad DeLong