Memorandum from Lieutenant General Hoyt Vandenberg to President Harry S. Truman

NLT(PSF.Intilly) TOP CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE GROUP NEW WAR DEPARTMENT BUILDING 21st and VIRGINIA AVENUE, N. W. WASHINGTON, D. C. 26 November 1946 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Tray In discounting the possibility that a French Government could be formed excluding the Communists, Ambassador Caffery asserts (No. 5624, 14 November) that the Communists now have sufficient strength to seize power in France whenever they may deem it desirable to do so. This assertion is based on consideration of: (1) Communist infiltration into key positions through- out France, particularly in the Ministries of Air, Armament, and Industrial Production. (2) Communist infiltration of the Air Force, and particularly Communist control of the majority of airfield AND mechanics and technicians. SERVICE (3) The ease with which organized Communist workers could seize the arsenals. (4) Communist maintenance of cadres of FTP (clandestine armed forces of resistance), the continued availability of the International Brigades, and the recruitment of veterans and deportees dependent on the Communist-controlled Ministry of stay Veterans. in change (5) The absorption of 2,000 Communistic officers from the FFI into the Army. Apaz gay The failure of the Communists to seize power in these circumstances is attributed to (1) their appreciation that it is preferable to attain it by legal processes, and (2) the fact that to do so would be contrary to the present policy of the Kremlin. It is generally agreed that no French Government could be formed without Communist participation. There is reason to doubt, however, that the Communists are now able at will to seize power in France by coup d'etat. The chief obstacle to such a coup would be the French Army and its habitual loyalty to regularly constituted authority of whatever DECLASSIFIED PROJECT NLT 72-79 TOP: SECKC By NLT-HC NARS, Date 3.f.79