ABSTRACT
The brutal German repression of early Resistance groups, such as the circle led by several anthropologists at the Paris Museum of Man who founded one of the first Resistance periodicals, made it clear that the commitment to anti-German activism was a serious one. While Charles de Gaulle struggled to impose himself as the legitimate representative of France's interests in world affairs, resistance to both the Germans and the Vichy government began to grow inside France. Despite the activities of Resistance and determination of de Gaulle, it was obvious that the Germans could not be defeated until American and British forces landed on French soil. The American general Dwight Eisenhower, the Allies spent 1943 and the first months of 1944 preparing Operation Over lord the massive amphibious landing that would start the liberation of France. For political reasons, de Gaulle determined to enter it as quickly as possible before the Resistance forces, which he regarded as Communist-dominated, install an independent government.
