Remember Casablanca!

Like many Americans, I had the impression that the American invasion of French Morocco in November 1942 involved little more than a few minutes of active military confrontation, after which the French joyfully embraced their American brothers, once they realized they weren't invading Germans. Actually, this is, more or less, what the Americans were actually expecting. They even sent up a flare with the American flag depicted, hoping this would cause their "french brothers" to lay down their arms! Fat Chance! What actually happened is that the French fought like wildcats for days, against overwhelming military odds, vastly outgunned and outmanned by the invading American troops, and suffered thousands of casualties in the process. They only agreed to an armistice after most of their active combatants were out of action, and General Patton was, quite seriously, threatening the total obliteration of Casablanca using unchallenged Naval Guns and air bombardment. My father often told me the story of his commanding officer telling the American GI's in France to keep away from the French troops, because they were as likely to shoot at Americans as Germans. This was, actually, inaccurate. The French, actually, much preferred shooting at Americans to shooting at Germans, as the invasion of Morocco illustrated! If the French had fought half as hard in May 1940 as they did in November 1942, the Nazis would never have conquered France! You see, actually, the average Frenchman adored Vichy, and worshiped Marshal Petain. And, the average Frenchman didn't like the British any more than he liked the Germans. Indeed, Charles de Gaulle's radio broadcasts from Britain were by no means particularly popular with Frenchmen, at the time, and Vichy might not have needed to execute de Gaulle themselves, since the french people would have saved them the trouble! Eisenhower had to actually agree to allow Nazi collaborator Francois Darlan to rule French Morocco, in order to give the French the impression that Vichy still ruled the roost, or the Americans would have faced an ongoing guerrilla War against the French inhabitants. Fortunately for Churchill and Roosevelt, Darlan was assassinated a couple of months later by a French student. And, if you believe Churchill and Roosevelt weren't behind that assassination, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you! So, these points suggest some interesting What-if possibilities. 1. What if the French and British actually fight in May 1940, instead of gleefully withdrawing, Britain behind her Channel, and the French behind the diplomatic ambiguities of Vichy, and Marshall Petain? After all, the French and British suffered only a very small fraction of the casualties in WWII they suffered in WWI, and I don't think this was an accident. The French and British simply decided in the late 1930's that if the Russians and the Germans really wanted to have another go at it, they were welcome to do so, but, this time, there would be no Western Front, at all. And, they arranged just that! 2. What if the French take the American Morocco invasion as personally, from an historical perspective, as they have taken Churchill's attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, near Oran, Morocco, in July 1940? After all, this has, to some extent, poisoned British and French relations, ever since. But, really, the American invasion was just as damaging and just as treacherous. So, what if French historians harp on the treacherous American annihilation of French forces in 1942. What effects would this have on subsequent Franco-American relations up to this point in history? 3. What if Francois Darlan is not so conveniently assassinated? What effects will this have on the further course of the Second World War, both in North Africa, and in Europe as a whole? After all, Darlan was just as happy to work with the French, the Americans or the Nazis.