French Committee for National Liberation

French Committee for National Liberation (Comité Français De Libération Nationale, or CFLN), formed in Algiers in June 1943 with the arch-rivals Giraud and de Gaulle as joint chairmen.

Of the other five original members, General Catroux, René Massigli, and André Philip supported de Gaulle, while General Alphonse Georges and Jean Monnet were Giraudists. Other nominees, mostly Gaullists, soon joined them, including two members of the French resistance. All agreed that until the committee could transfer its powers to a future provisional government, ‘it undertakes to restore all French liberties, the laws of the Republic, the Republican regime, and entirely to destroy the arbitrary regime of personal power imposed today on the country.’ Roosevelt, who disliked de Gaulle, ordered Eisenhower's HQ in North Africa to deal direct with the French military authorities, and not through the CFLN. This boosted Giraud's standing, but he was no politician and by October de Gaulle had wrested control of the CFLN from him, and Giraud confined himself to military matters. By May 1944, when the committee announced itself the provisional government of the French Republic, Giraud had resigned from the committee, and as C-in-C. But though it began to be consulted by the western Allies on military matters, they still refused to recognize it as the French provisional government. And in spite of pressure from de Gaulle—and despite the fact they accepted the CFLN after the Normandy landings (see OVERLORD) as the de facto administration for liberated France—the Allies, on Roosevelt's insistence, continued to withhold recognition until October 1944. See also France, 3(d).