When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance

by Michael S. Neiberg

Overview

Winner of the Society for Military History’s Distinguished Book Award

“Deeply researched and forcefully written . . . deftly explains the confused politics and diplomacy that bedeviled the war against the Nazis.”—Wall Street Journal

“Neiberg is one of the very best historians on wartime France, and his approach to the fall of France and its consequences is truly original and perceptive as well as superbly written.”—Antony Beevor, author of The Second World War

“An utterly gripping account, the best to date, of relations within the turbulent triumvirate of France, Britain, and America in the Second World War.”—Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

The “most shocking single event” of World War II, according to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but the fall of France in the spring of 1940. The Nazi invasion of France destabilized Washington’s strategic assumptions, resulting in hasty and desperate decision-making. Michael Neiberg offers a dramatic history of America’s bewildering response—policies that placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined its alliance with Britain.

FDR and his advisors naively believed they could woo Vichy France’s decorated wartime leader, Marshal Philippe Pétain, and prevent the country from becoming a formal German ally. The British, convinced that the Vichy government was fully subservient to Nazi Germany, chose to back Charles de Gaulle and actively financed and supported the Resistance. After the war, America’s decision to work with the Vichy regime cast a pall over US-French relations that lasted for decades.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674293885
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	159,425
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Michael S. Neiberg is the award-winning author of Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe, Fighting the Great War, and Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I, among other books. He is Professor of History and the inaugural Chair of War Studies at the US Army War College.

Table of Contents

Introduction A Fight for Love and Glory 1

1 We'll Always Have Paris: The Nazis March In 17

2 A Hill of Beans in This Crazy World: America's New Insecurity 50

3 No Good at Being Noble: The Vichy Quandary 81

4 We Mustn't Underestimate American Blundering: Britain's Imperial Insecurity 111

5 They're Asleep in New York: The Allies Look for Answers 142

6 A Beautiful Friendship? The Invasion of French North Africa 174

7 Round Up the Usual Suspects: Assassination in Algiers 207

Conclusion As Time Goes By 240

Notes 251

Acknowledgments 301

Illustration Credits 303

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

An utterly gripping account, the best to date, of relations within the turbulent triumvirate of France, Britain, and America in the Second World War. Neiberg vividly brings to life the extraordinary military, domestic, personal, and political pressures on giants such as Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles de Gaulle, while also showing the immediate practical effect their interactions had on ordinary people in the struggle against the Nazis.

Andrew Roberts

Punctures the myths of the conventional American story of the Second World War…Important, well argued, deeply researched, and a pleasure to read, written by one of the most productive and accomplished American historians of both world wars.

H-Net Reviews - Richard Fogarty

An important and fascinating book that examines U.S. policy towards Vichy—a policy which not only put the United States at odds with its wartime ally, Great Britain, but also was destined to fail…While numerous books have been written on the fall of France, U.S. policy toward Vichy has been curiously overlooked in recent years. Neiberg remedies this…Highly readable [and] filled with interesting, larger-than-life characters.

National Interest - Sean Durns

Expertly researched and a pleasure to read, When France Fell fills an important gap in the history of World War II by analyzing American relations with Vichy and Free French forces, how the geopolitical position of France’s colonial holdings steered US policy, and how those decisions deeply strained Anglo–American relations. The story Neiberg tells is one of misguided calculations and ultimately tremendous luck that Americans’ ‘Vichy gamble’ did not cause more political and military turmoil.

Brooke L. Blower

It is difficult to find WWII material that is both interesting and fresh, but this book qualifies.

Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen

A superbly crafted synthesis of military, diplomatic, and political history…Neiberg concludes that America’s flirtation with Vichy did not go disastrously wrong, but cautions that this had little to do with wise decision-making in Washington…[An] excellent book.

Carl Cavanagh Hodge

Neiberg’s fascinating and compelling study places France back at the heart of the story of the Second World War. He crafts a vivid narrative of the extraordinary and radical transformations that accompanied the catastrophe in France. The consequences of defeat were profound for a divided Gallic nation, but they were also defining for Britain and America; the defeat of Europe’s premier land power put a nail in the coffin of one superpower and sparked the rise of another. Highly recommended!

Jonathan Fennell

Deeply researched and forcefully written…shed[s] light on an embarrassing period in American diplomacy…Neiberg offers a mesmerizing account of how the U.S., as it anticipated another European war, stumbled through attempts to neutralize Vichy France…Neiberg deftly explains the confused politics and diplomacy that bedeviled the war against the Nazis.

Wall Street Journal - Ronald C. Rosbottom

Neiberg’s important new book, When France Fell, chronicles the often-bungled attempts of the United States to redefine its strategy and navigate its relationship with Vichy France. It is one of the first, if not the first, work in English to address the strategic relationship between the United States and France during the Second World War…A timely reminder of the importance of statecraft in an age where international incivility runs rampant.

Cameron Zinsou

This is an extremely well researched and readable book. And it is a reminder that in wartime, fighting the enemy can often be less complicated than dealing with your allies.

Military History Matters - Calum Henderson

Meticulously researched but extremely readable…[An] excellent book.

Julian Jackson

Michael Neiberg is one of the very best historians on wartime France, and his approach to the fall of France and its consequences is truly original and perceptive as well as superbly written.

Antony Beevor

Neiberg has rescued an important episode in the history of the Second World War from relative obscurity and done so in great style. His book, with its terrific cast of characters and fast-paced story, reads like a novel and is at the same time an outstanding piece of historical research and analysis.

Margaret MacMillan

The fall of France shattered the illusion that the United States could stay on the sidelines while Nazi Germany carved up Europe. Writing with clarity and verve, deep knowledge of French sources, and a keen eye for human foibles, Neiberg explains how the defeat of June 1940 transformed America’s relationship with France and compelled a rethinking of America’s world role. A smart and fresh analysis of Franco–American relations in the darkest hour of our long friendship.

William I. Hitchcock

An excellent book, the product of deep research, clear thought, and gripping writing. Neiberg restores France and the French Empire to its rightful place in the history of the strategy of the Atlantic powers in the Second World War. In so doing, he allows us to understand anew how shocking the French defeat in 1940 was for American policymakers, and the profound consequences that reverberated from that shock for the subsequent course of the war.

Daniel Todman