“Casablanca”: Rick’s Letters of Transit. Signed by…Darlan?
Darlan, Vichy, the French Fleet, and a Question
A PBS documentary on Churchill’s destruction of the French Fleet at Oran aired a decade ago.** But I still get the same question about one of its more infamous characters, Admiral François Darlan, Prime Minister of Vichy France during the Oran attack. He was also PM in early December 1941: the time frame for Casablanca, one of the great movies of all time.
Darlan was by reputation wily, untrustworthy and scurrilous. Eisenhower made him High Commissioner in exchange for Vichy forces standing down during the November 1942 invasion of North Africa.…
