The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

Book excerpt: The enigma of Admiral Darlan is a part of the great French tragedy. His vertiginous rise to power in the very midst of the French catastrophe, his enigmatic wranglings with the Germans, his defiance of the natural friends of France, his insistence on questions of national pride when it seemed to the world that France could not afford any further pride, his feat in imposing his conditions on the Allies in North Africa, and his cruel death on that Christmas Eve, are all part of a great riddle in the tragedy of France. [...] This book was written in incomplete form before the Allied invasion of North Africa; but since then, and since the Admiral’s death, it has been possible to add many important details connected with his differences with the British and with his negotiations with the Axis Powers—details which at that time it would have been both undesirable and impossible to include.