“I can get de Verbey back to Deal, Bill,” Martin said.
“But how are u going to keep him there?”
YO “For the time being-I really don’t want to lock him up unless I have to-I think we should keep staffing him,” Donovan said.
“Maybe pay him some Navy attention. That will infuriate de Gaulle when he finds out about it-and he will. But I still think we can peacefully stop the admiral from calling him a megalomaniac on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. “What do you mean by “Navy attention’?” Martin asked. “Send some Navy brass to ask his opinion about invading North Africa,” Donovan said.
“That might appeal to his ego, keeping his role in 11@ the invasion a secret.”
“And he might even be helpful,” Martin said, just slightly sarcastic.
“He was the naval commander in Casablanca.”
“Well, you make him feel important, and I’ll arrange with Captain Doug lass to send some Navy brass down to confer with him,” “What about some of the French naval officers in Washington? Can we get him some kind of a small staff? Otherwise, he’ll know we’re just humoring him.”
Donovan thought that over. The moment Free French naval officers were assigned to de Verbey, de Gaulle would hear about it-and be furious.
Perhaps that might not be a bad idea. It was MacHiavellian.
Or perhaps Rooseveltian. “I’ll speak to Doug lass,” Donovan said.
“I’m sure we can find several otherwise unoccupied French naval officers to serve the admiral.”
“I’ll have him at Summer Place by noon tomorrow,” Martin promised. The third item on the agenda was financial. Five million dollars in gold coins had been made available to finance secret operations in Africa, France, and Spain. More would be made available when needed. Five million was enough to get started.
Project Arcadia had two basic objectives: to keep Spain from joining the German-Italian-japanese Axis, and to keep the native populations of French North Africa (Morocco Algeria, and Tunisia) from throwing in their lot with the Germans. Five million was a lot of money, but worth it. Ten times that much was available if necessary from the President’s secret war appropriation. It would be much cheaper to spend fifty million to keep Spain neutral than to spend two weeks at war with her.
Donovan and his Disciples knew that it had been decided to invade French North Africa as quickly as possible. That would be called Operation Torch. Donovan now told the Disciples something he had learned from the President only the day before: The Army and Navy were shooting for an August or September D-Day for Operation Torch, but he and Roosevelt privately believed the operation could not be executed until October or November. In addition to the logistical nightmare of sending an invasion force from the United States directly to Africa, there were geopolitical problems. If Spain joined the Axis, the Germans could legally move troops into Spanish Morocco, from where you could almost spit on Gibraltar. The Vichy government was almost certainly going to resist Torch with whatever they had. And they had troops and warships, including the battleship jean Bart, in Casablanca.
All of these problems would be compounded if the natives decided to support the Franco-Germans against an American invasion. Some of their troops were not only good but in French service; and even the least modernized of their forces could function effectively as guerrillas.
On the other hand, the French Army had never been able to pacify the ones who disdained French service. Donovan ordered the five million to be spent with the missions of Project Arcadia alone in mind. As little as possible would be spent for general war objectives.” It was further not to be regarded as supplemental funds by intelligence operators on the scene. Gold was worth $32.00 an ounce, $512.00 a pound. Five million dollars’ worth of gold weighed about ten thousand pounds, five tons. A man named Atherton Richards, a banker on the fringes of the Disriples, would pick up the gold at the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan, transport it by Brink’s armored cars to the Navy base in Brooklyn, and load it on a U.S. Navy destroyer, which Would then make a high-speed run across the Atlantic to Gibraltar. Donovan’s Disciples had other plans and operations to discuss, offering suggestions and seeking instructions, and the session continued for two more hours before it died down. “Is that all?” Donovan finally asked. He was tired and wanted some sleep. The rat poison and the Scotch were getting to him. “I have one thing, William,” the Near Eastern Disciple said. “Has there been any decision about whether, or how, we’re going to deal with Thami el Glaoui?”