Twenty-Eighth Infantry marching down the Champs-Élysées
Eisenhower told de Gaulle that he planned to move his headquarters to Versailles. This was very much to de Gaulle’s liking. “I approved the move,” de Gaulle wrote in his memoirs, “believing it was advantageous to have the Allied commander in chief not lodged in Paris but useful that he be nearby.”28 Eisenhower’s decision to place Allied headquarters in Versailles was another example of his deference to de Gaulle. He knew that if he was in Paris, he would steal the limelight from de Gaulle, and that was something he wanted to avoid.
Eisenhower and de Gaulle parted on the best terms possible. “I expressed to this great and good leader the esteem, confidence, and gratitude of the French government,” said de Gaulle.29 Eisenhower was equally supportive. “What I wanted to see was the situation in Paris under control, and as far as I was concerned de Gaulle was the best man to do that. I wanted my visit to show the people he had my support, that as far as I was concerned de Gaulle was the boss of France. That’s the effect I wanted and that’s the effect I got.”30
From the War Ministry, Eisenhower and Bradley initially went to Les Invalides, and Ike met first with Gerow, then with Koenig. Eisenhower understood de Gaulle’s concern about Gerow, and fortunately he and Gerow were old friends from the prewar army. In their meeting, Eisenhower brought Gerow up to date on the political situation and told him Paris was not to be governed by the American military but by the French. Ike told him to hand over his office to Koenig and get back to the front fighting Germans as soon as possible. He also said that Leclerc’s division was going back to Patton and Haislip. Gerow was not offended and rather pleased to be going back into action. There were no hard feelings. To Koenig, Ike said essentially the same. The next day Gerow visited Koenig and told him he was turning Paris over to him. Koenig was caustic. “The French authorities alone have handled the administration of the city of Paris since its liberation. Acting as the military governor of Paris since my arrival, I assumed the responsibilities… the 25th of August, 1944.”31
Gerow went back to the front,III and Eisenhower later joked about it to Marshall: “We have had some little trouble with de Gaulle and Leclerc in Paris but Gerow handled it firmly and I rushed in there Sunday morning for an hour to back him up. I guess we should not blame the French for getting a bit hysterical under the conditions, and I must say they seem now to be settling down in good order.”32 Eisenhower was superb at writing communiques to justify his action, and this is one example. He had backed de Gaulle, not Gerow, but everything was handled successfully.
Eisenhower with Bradley and Koenig at the Arc de Triomphe
From the Invalides, Eisenhower and Bradley were taken by Koenig across the Seine to the Place de la Concorde and up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. The crowds were enormous. A great roar went up when Eisenhower was recognized. “Eisenhower! Eisenhower!” they chanted as French and American MPs tried to clear a path to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. After paying their respects, Eisenhower and Bradley attempted to return to their car. It was almost impossible to move through the crowd. Eisenhower was kissed on both cheeks by a large Frenchman as he approached his car, and Bradley—who had broken off and was headed for a jeep—by a beautiful young woman. “Later, as I rubbed a smear of her lipstick from my cheek, I joked with Ike about my better fortune. ‘I’ll leave the accolades to you and take my chances with the crowd.’ ”33
Eisenhower and Bradley then headed back to Bradley’s headquarters for a late lunch. The visit to Paris was a moving experience. Kay Summersby may have expressed it best. “I hate lofty, dramatic words. But there in Paris that August day—a Paris still resounding to liberating gunfire, a Paris absolutely wild with mass happiness over something intangible called Freedom—I knew exactly what the war was all about.”34
But the FFI in Paris remained a problem. On Monday, August 28, de Gaulle summoned the leaders of the Resistance to the War Department. As he wrote later, “The iron was hot: I struck.”35 De Gaulle congratulated the leaders for their role in liberating Paris, and then said that since the fighting was over, he was dissolving the FFI. Members who wished to join the French army could do so immediately. He also said that since the liberation struggle was over, the National Council of the Resistance no longer had a raison d’être. The Parisian Committee of Liberation was also to disappear. Georges Bidault, the head of the CNR, would immediately become France’s foreign minister, and Charles Tillon, who headed the CPL and who was Communist, would become the government’s minister of air. De Gaulle handled it well.
Perhaps the most useful result was that Colonel Rol, who did not disagree with de Gaulle, immediately organized a battalion of FFI members and joined the French army as part of the 151st Infantry Regiment. The battalion did well in combat, and in June 1945, after the war ended, Rol received the Croix de la Libération from de Gaulle himself. Later Rol was made the commander of the occupation force in the city of Coblenz in the French Zone of Occupation in Germany. At the end of his duties in Coblenz, Rol was inducted into the French Legion of Honor.
De Gaulle was in control. More than eleven thousand members of the FFI joined the army, and on September 9 de Gaulle established a new provisional government with twenty-one ministers, including Bidault and Tillon. In many respects, this was the informal beginning of the Fourth Republic, which did not officially come into existence until October 13, 1946. De Gaulle’s role in avoiding civil strife in Paris is important. Not only did he keep the Communists in the government, but also in October he pardoned Maurice Thorez, the head of the French Communist Party, who had spent the war years in Moscow. Drafted into the French army in 1939, Thorez had deserted and fled to the Soviet Union. The army responded by trying him for desertion and sentencing him to death. De Gaulle, who had been similarly sentenced under Vichy, saw no problem in pardoning Thorez, who returned to France in November 1944 as head of the Communist Party and became a staunch supporter of de Gaulle.
It should also be noted that Moscow did not seek to overthrow the French government. Stalin did not want a civil war to break out in the West that might divert the Americans and British in the war against Germany. De Gaulle also got along well with Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov. French historians tend to see the avoidance of another Commune entirely in French terms. But the French Communist Party was a loyal subordinate of Moscow, and if the Russians did not want another Commune, the French Party was not going to launch one.
The liberation of Paris was an extraordinary event, but it did not solve many of the problems from which the city suffered in August 1944. Food remained the most serious concern. The American army did its best to provide assistance and, in the fall and winter following liberation, provided more than half of all supplies brought into the city. But as late as January 1945, most Parisians were living on just twelve hundred calories a day. Coal, gas, and heating oil were also in short supply, making Paris very cold in the winter of 1944–45. In the immediate aftermath of liberation, those who had collaborated with the Germans also found life difficult. They were ruthlessly attacked by gangs in Paris who roamed streets looking for collaborators. More than 10,000 were arrested and sent to prisons where Jewish prisoners had been held. As has been mentioned, French women were also punished for their romantic alliances with Germans—more than 100,000 enfants de Boche had been born—although for most it was a relatively harmless affair. These were problems the Gaullist government faced, but the larger problem of political stability had been resolved.
When all is said and done, the liberation of a largely undamaged Paris was primarily the work of three men: von Choltitz, de Gaulle, and Eisenhower. Von Choltitz rejected direct orders from Hitler to destroy the city, and he did so knowing that his wife and children might be made to pay for his disobedience. De Gaulle did so as the president of liberated France. He was absolute in his quest for authority, and Paris was essential to his effort. For Eisenhower, who made the ultimate decision to liberate the city,
it marked the end of his command apprenticeship and the beginning of his power as a world statesman. On his own authority, without seeking the approval of the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the British government, or Washington, he saved Paris for the French and avoided its destruction. He outmaneuvered FDR and the State Department so skillfully that he left no fingerprints.
All three men were superb military professionals. They understood their duty and fulfilled their responsibility to the utmost. For de Gaulle and Eisenhower, it was just the beginning. De Gaulle remained as the head of France until January 1946, when he stepped down. He returned in 1958 as the last premier of the Fourth Republic, settled the problems in Algeria, and founded the Fifth Republic with a strong chief executive (he actually wrote the Constitution). De Gaulle served as president from the inception of the Fifth Republic in January 1959 until April 1969. And the Fifth Republic of France has been remarkably stable and successful.
Eisenhower served as president of the United States for two terms. He ended the war in Korea, refused to use nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu or to protect the Chinese Nationalist islands, built the Interstate Highway System, and advanced the end of segregation in the South when he sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock in 1957. And the friendship between de Gaulle and Eisenhower continued. When Ike passed away on March 28, 1969, de Gaulle, who was still president of the Fifth Republic, flew to Washington to pay final respects to his wartime ally who lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol.
De Gaulle at Eisenhower’s casket
Von Choltitz’s career ended in August 1944 when he surrendered Paris. He was never tried for war crimes and after his release from captivity in 1947, he became a hero to the French. He and General Pierre Koenig, who was the military governor of the French zone in Germany and living in Baden-Baden, became good friends. When von Choltitz died in 1966, the French not only provided the guard of honor at his funeral, but the ranking generals in the French army also attended.
A final question is whether the liberation of Paris prolonged the war. The needs of the city, ranging from food to coal, gas, and oil were enormous, and kept the Allied supply forces busy. And in that respect, it did contribute to lengthening the war. But it was not the major factor. As supreme commander, Eisenhower saw the war in political terms. He wanted to avoid a rebirth of Nazism, and believed a total victory was essential for that purpose. The defeat of the German army was not as important as bringing home the defeat to everyone in Germany. Accordingly, after the liberation of Paris, Ike favored a broad frontal advance.
In early September 1944 he rejected the idea that Allied forces would come together north of the Ardennes in a reverse Schlieffen Plan and storm into Germany—as Montgomery cabled it, “a solid mass of forty divisions that would be so strong that it need fear nothing.”36 He also rejected Bradley’s proposal for a single thrust led by the American Twelfth Army Group south of the Ardennes into the Saar and the Frankfurt Gap. Rather than choose between the two, Eisenhower adopted both. And he also sent the Sixth Army Group, which had come up from Marseilles under General Jacob Devers against the Germans on the front between Bradley and the Swiss border. This was the broad front strategy he believed in. But by not concentrating his forces, he gave the Germans time to regroup.
Colonel d’Omezon, the French commander in Baden-Baden, salutes von Choltitz’s casket
As a result of Eisenhower’s decision, the Allies inched forward along a 450-mile front from Basel to Antwerp. And the Germans, who had effectively been defeated in August, were able to bounce back. Field Marshal von Rundstedt was recalled by Hitler, and in December the Germans launched a counterattack in the Ardennes (Herbstnebel), which the Americans called “the Battle of the Bulge.” It was eventually contained, but the war went on until May 1945.
Were those extra six months avoidable? It is a question often asked. In many respects a similar situation existed during the American Civil War. In 1878, on a world tour after his presidency, Ulysses Grant called on Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in Berlin. Bismarck commiserated about the Civil War and told Grant it was terrible. “It had to be terrible,” Grant replied. “There had to be an end to slavery. We were fighting an enemy with whom we could not make peace. We had to destroy him. No treaty was possible—only destruction.”
“It was a long war,” Bismarck replied. “I suppose that means a long peace.”37
The same applies to Germany. Her total defeat has meant there has been no “stab in the back” myth such as the one that poisoned German history after World War I. There has been little nostalgia for Hitler or the Nazi regime. Eisenhower insisted on a total victory. That may have extended the war by six months, but as Bismarck told Grant, that has meant “a long peace.”
I. Emmanuel Célestin Suhard was named cardinal by Pope Pius XI in 1935. In May 1940, Pius XII appointed him archbishop of Paris. In that capacity Suhard vigorously supported the formation of the Vichy regime under Pétain, and remained a powerful advocate, except that in July 1942 he wrote a public protest against the deportation of the Jews from Paris. He was briefly confined to the archbishop’s residence by the Nazis, but that was soon lifted. After the war he became the president of the Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops of France, and the official spokesman of the Church of France. He was also instrumental in establishing the Worker-Priest movement after the war, which was an attempt to bring the clergy closer to the people. He died on May 30, 1949, at the age of seventy-five.
II. After the war Leclerc served in Indochina and then in Algeria. Appointed inspector of land forces in Africa, he was killed in a plane crash in Algeria in November 1947. His funeral service was held at Notre-Dame and he was buried at Les Invalides. On August 23, 1952—the anniversary of his drive on Paris—he was posthumously made a marshal of France.
III. Leonard Gerow was one of the outstanding combat commanders of World War II. He remained in command of V Corps until January 15, 1945, when he was given command of the newly established Fifteenth Army. He was promoted to lieutenant general on February 6, 1945. After the war he commanded the army’s Command and General Staff School, and on January 1, 1948, became commanding general of Second Army. He retired in July 1950, and four years later was appointed a full general on Eisenhower’s recommendation by Act of Congress (Public Law 83-508).
Acknowledgments
My principal indebtedness is to Kristen Pack of the Veterans Administration hospital in Huntington. I write in longhand on yellow legal pads. I am eighty-six and my handwriting is not what it once was. Kristen reads what I have written and types it flawlessly. She gives me clean copy every day. She typed many drafts faultlessly and without complaint, and I am deeply indebted. Kristen also prepared the bibliography, did a wonderful job helping to find the pictures we have used, and was a pleasure to work with. I have been privileged to have her work on the book.
I am also deeply indebted to President Jerome Gilbert of Marshall University. I retired from the University of Toronto in 1998, and from Marshall in 2012. My last book was written at Columbia and Georgetown. After that I returned to Huntington, West Virginia, and President Gilbert asked me to become the John Marshall Professor of Political Science emeritus at Marshall, which I did. President Gilbert gave me an office and full university support, for which I am very grateful. I am also indebted to Professor James Leonard of the Geography Department, who drew the four maps in the text.
Once again my editor at Simon & Schuster was Bob Bender. Bob was my editor for Grant and Bush, and he does a wonderful job. His comments are invaluable and his thoughtfulness is breathtaking. I am also indebted to his assistant, Johanna Li, who is an associate editor at Simon & Schuster and also worked with me on Grant and Bush. The manuscript was copyedited by Rick Willett.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to the “Gang of Thirteen”—old friends, former classmates, and colleagues who have read the manuscript and offered suggestions. Each brings a different perspective, and their suggestions have been invaluable: Richard
Arndt, Robert Briskman ’54, Jules Engel ’54, Ellen Feldman, Beth Fischer, Peter Krogh, Sanford Lakoff, Peter Matson, Harry Moul ’54, George Packard ’54, Donald Rumsfeld ’54, and David and Kelly Vaziri.
My agent once again was Peter Matson at Sterling Lord Literistic. Peter stands at the top of his profession and it is easy to see why. I am deeply indebted.
I have dedicated this book to my wife, Christine, whom I married in Berlin on September 24, 1959. I was stationed there with the army (I was a lieutenant in the field artillery), and Christine and I met at a party at the officers’ club on New Year’s Eve 1958. She was a student at the Free University, and we became engaged the following summer. In a sense, she is a war bride. But that is inadequate to describe the affection we have shared for sixty years.
Perhaps I should add that Christine’s father, Johannes Zinsel, was captured in Paris at the Palais du Luxembourg. Mr. Zinsel was not a member of the SS, but was a high school teacher in Berlin who had been drafted into the German army in 1943 at the age of forty. He was assigned to a bookkeeping unit in Frankfurt, but in mid-August 1944 received orders to go to Paris and join another bookkeeping unit. When he got off the train in Paris on August 23 he was given a rifle and told to go to the Palais du Luxembourg. He was captured on August 25 and sent to an American prison camp in Normandy where, because he could speak English, he became a translator. He was eventually released from captivity in December 1945.
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