Office of the Historian

740.0011 (E. W.)/11–742: Telegram

The Consul General at Algiers (Cole) to the War Department 6

[Algiers, undated.]
[Received October 26, 1942—3 p.m.]

No. 725. From Murphy. For Eisenhower. Messenger sent to France after Flagpole’s meeting with Clark7 reports that Kingpin8 agrees in principle to our proposition. He asks that we continue study of his idea of establishing a bridgehead in southern France. I am also informed under promise that it is for my personal information only and not as yet for communication to you that Kingpin will be willing to come to Africa for the operation. The reason for the stricture on communication to you of this information is that messenger left here last Friday morning by plane before I was able to give him the text of the letter of proposal approved by Clark and myself in agreement with Flagpole. Therefore Kingpin did not have before him this text but merely an oral account of the morning meeting between Clark and Flagpole. On that preliminary basis he agrees subject to consideration of the text which should be delivered to him this morning by a second messenger.9 [Murphy.]

Cole
  1. Copy supplied by the Office of the Secretary of Defense under cover of letter of September 7, 1960.↩
  2. The Cherchel Conference, October 22, 1942, between United States representatives Gen. Mark W. Clark and Robert D. Murphy and French representatives Gen. Charles E. Mast (Flagpole) and Col. Louis G. M. Jousse. For details relating to this conference, see the following volumes: George F. Howe, Northwest Africa: Seizing the Initiative in the West, in the series United States Army in World War II: Mediterranean Theater of Operations (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1957), pp. 81–83; Marcel Vigneras, Rearming the French, in the series United States Army in World War II: Special Studies (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1957), pp. 12–16; Comité français de la libération nationale, Les Cahiers Français, No. 47, August 1943, “La part de la résistance française dans les événements de l’Afrique du Nord”, pp. 3–45; Gen. Mark W. Clark, Calculated Risk (New York, Harpers, 1950), pp. 5, 69–89.↩
  3. Code name for Gen. Henri Giraud.↩
  4. For correspondence between Mr. Murphy and General Giraud, see pp. 412–422.↩