truth was that Roosevelt, who had been deeply shocked by France’s defeat, took the view that the country had lost any claim to be treated as a great power. On the other hand, he was pragmatically ready to deal with Vichy if this could serve American interests, and he sent an ambassador to Pétain in the form of the Catholic and very conservative Admiral William Leahy. Roosevelt’s policy did not in principle rule out contacts with the Free French, but he concluded from the Dakar fiasco that de Gaulle enjoyed little support and was just a creature of the British. He viewed the Free French with a
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