AUGUST 22, 1944
GRAND-CHAMP, FRANCE
EARLY MORNING
Dwight Eisenhower is changing his mind.
The supreme commander is up early. Morning songbirds are just starting to trill. A cup of coffee—first one of today’s twenty. The first cigarette of today’s three packs. Eisenhower sits at a small wooden field desk looking at a letter from Charles de Gaulle, restating his arguments about Paris. He has also had discussions in the last twenty-four hours with General Omar Bradley about the Frenchman sent his way by George S. Patton.
This morning’s London Daily Herald is stating that Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill will tour Paris once liberation occurs, also mentioning that Charles de Gaulle may be allowed to join them and “probably have the place of honor.”
To Eisenhower, this just isn’t right. He will do everything in his power to help de Gaulle succeed. Although he has not said so, Eisenhower holds the same fondness for Paris as George Patton, having lived there in the fashionable 16th arrondissement for fourteen months in the late 1920s. He learned to read and write French during that time.
It is 10:30 when Eisenhower meets formally with General Bradley to discuss the Paris situation. Bradley relays information from his chief intelligence officer, Brigadier General Edwin Sibert, who debriefed Roger Cocteau at length: “If we don’t get to Paris in a couple days there’s going to be an awful slaughter.”
In addition to Bradley, Eisenhower speaks with General Marie-Pierre Koenig, hero of Bir Hakeim, now fighting with the Allies in France.
Then, still not certain Paris is the smartest tactical maneuver, Eisenhower writes a small note to chief of staff General Walter Bedell Smith.
“It looks now as if we shall be compelled to go to Paris,” Eisenhower writes, in effect giving the formal order.