The Players

Free French/Fighting French

General Charles de Gaulle: Undersecretary of national defense, June 1940; thereafter, leader of the Free French/Fighting French throughout Second World War; head of Provisional French Government, 1946; premier of Fourth Republic, 1958; president of Fifth Republic, 1959–69.

Geoffroy de Courcel: Aide-de-camp and private secretary to General de Gaulle, 1940–41; later deputy chef du cabinet, ambassador to London.

Elisabeth de Miribel: Volunteer and aide to General de Gaulle 1940–49; member Carmelite Order 1949–58; later a French diplomat.

General Marie-Pierre Koenig: Commander-in-chief, Free French Forces; later marshall of France.

General Jacques-Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque: Commander, 2nd Armoured Division 1944–45; liberator of Paris.

Jean Moulin: Delegate-General to the French Resistance.

Henri Georges René Tanguy (Colonel Rol-Tanguy): Communist leader of the Resistance in Paris.

Georges Bidault: President, Comité National de la Resistance.

General Jacques Chaban-Delmas: Fighting French military delegate to the Resistance, 1944–45.

Government of France (1940)

Édouard Daladier: Premier and minister of defense.

Paul Reynaud: Premier, March–June 1940.

Albert Lebrun: President, 1932–40.

Vichy France (1940–44)

Marshall Philippe Pétain: First World War hero; surrendered France to Germany in Second World War; chief of state, 1940–44.

Pierre Laval: Premier during German occupation.

General Maxime Weygand: Minister of defense.

Admiral François Darlan: Minister for interior, defense, and foreign affairs, 1941–42; high commissioner in North Africa, 1942.

United Kingdom

Winston Churchill: Prime minister 1940–45, 1951–55.

Anthony Eden: Secretary of state for war, 1940–45; prime minister during 1956 Suez crisis.

Major-General Edward Spears: Personal representative of Winston Churchill to France, 1940.

United States

Franklin D. Roosevelt: President, 1933–45.

Cordell Hull: Secretary of State, 1933–44.

Robert Murphy: Chargé d’affaires, Vichy, 1940; special mission, Algeria, 1941–43.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower: Commander-in-chief, Allied forces in Europe, 1943–45; president 1953–61.

Admiral William D. Leahy: Ambassador to Vichy France, 1941–42.

William C. Bullitt: Ambassador to France, 1935–40.

Canada

William Lyon Mackenzie King: Prime minister 1935–48.

Major Georges Vanier: Ambassador to France 1940, 1944–53; governor general, 1959–67.

Jean Dupuy: Ambassador to Vichy France, 1941–42, later head of Expo ’67, Montreal.

Nazi Germany

Adolf Hitler: Führer, head of Nazi Party, commander-in-chief of armed forces, 1933–45.

General Dietrich von Choltitz: Military governor of Paris, August 1944.

Otto Abetz: Nazi ambassador to France, 1940–44.

West Germany

Konrad Adenhauer: Chancellor, Federal Republic of West Germany, 1949–63.