Vichyfrance got an unexpected reprieve last week just when Washington was sure that U.S. Marines were about to take over Martinique.
Perhaps the President changed signals after his conference with Churchill. Perhaps something persuaded the State Department that Marshal Pétain's radio plea for closer Franco-Nazi cooperation (TIME, Aug. 25) might be just another effort to appease Hitler with promises instead of warships and bases. There was a bigger, simpler reason: the French seemed to be turning ever more violently against Darlan's Nazi-philes. Such a time was no time for the U.S. to seize a French island.
Balding, brooding little Gaston Henry-Haye, Vichyfrench...
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