851.00/6–2246: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Caffery) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:40 p.m.]
3050. Referring to Bidault’s efforts to form a government and especially to the Communist attitude thereto, several prominent Frenchmen have remarked recently that the only card of value that Bidault holds in his game with the Communists is the fact that the Communists are apprehensive lest Bidault’s failure to form a government might produce such chaotic political conditions here that De Gaulle might return to power. The Communists are not afraid of Bidault but are very much afraid of De Gaulle.
Repeated London 463, Moscow 246; Berlin 250.
[On July 11 the Acting Secretary of State instructed the United States consular officers at Algiers, Casablanca, Rabat, and Tunis to begin reporting regularly on Communist propaganda and other activities in French North Africa. For documentation on this subject, see volume VII, “Interest of the United States in Communist and Nationalist Activities in North Africa.”]