FDR’s Road to Damascus: The United States, the Free French, and American “Principles on Trial” in the Levant

Abstract

It would be easy to overlook Syria and Lebanon in light of substantial American involvement elsewhere. Prior to World War II, American officials paid little thought to the Levant. While they gave scant attention to the Middle East as a whole, Syria and Lebanon, in particular, remained of only marginal interest. The Middle East was a British sphere and the French mandates were remote from American concerns. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq, they neither possessed oil nor had the strategic importance of Egypt with its Suez Canal. During the early years of the war, American forces and intelligence operatives emphasized the importance of Iran, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, but Syria and Lebanon possessed little of interest. Postwar planners dismissively noted that their chief economic activities were the cultivation of fruits, olives, cereals, and the “care of goats, sheep, etc.”³

General de Gaulle has even expressed the view recently that Syria and the Lebanon may not be ready for full independence “for many years.”

Sumner Welles to FDR, September 1, 1942.¹

It is difficult to understand how the French, whose country is now groaning under the heel of the invader, can be unmindful of the aspirations toward independence of another people.

Cordell Hull, November 1943.²