The Enigma of Admiral Darlan

JEAN FRANÇOIS DARLAN was successively Admiral of France, pillar of the Vichy regime, and governor of French North Africa by agreement with General Eisenhower. Was he a patriot or a traitor? The author of this unusual book, whose identity is hidden by a pseudonym, is a strong admirer of Darlan and a romantic royalist in personal convictions. He believes that Darlan’s motives, while complex, were patriotic, and that if the late Admiral disliked what he regarded as British pretensions to overlordship, he never sold out to the Nazis. Besides painting a vivid picture of Darlan as the hard-drinking, hard-fighting seaman, the practical politician, and the beloved leader of France’s sailors, the author presents a French conservative view of the war and of French relations with England and America that is provocative.