Abstract

Can Vichy Hold Syria?

This article focuses on issues related to political hold and administrative power over Syria by the government of Vichy, France, and on the resulting invasion. The British have marched into Syria in an effort to obtain control of a region which has been the strategic key to the Middle East. The main defense of Syria still depends on the French, and it is supposed that the success of the comparatively small forces which British General Archibald Wavell can spare for this operation may well turn on the extent to which Vichy can count on the loyalty of a handful of French civil servants and officers. The Germans are certain to do everything possible to maintain a grip on Syria. Vichy has in Syria not over 50,000 troops, 40,000 of them Senegalese blacks from Africa. There is one battalion of the Foreign Legion.