The Frenchman was full of bile against Britain and America and especially Roosevelt, whom he described as “a madman.” Darlan also exulted in the Japanese victories, which he regarded as “sensational and depressing defeats for the Anglo-Saxon world,” a term he used at least twice during the encounter. That said, Darlan was apparently unyielding on the key points. He refused to allow the Axis use of ports in Tunisia for fear that British would respond by treating Vichy France as a belligerent and attack Dakar or some other part of the French colonial empire.
