On top of the humiliation of defeat was compounded the confusion of not knowing what authority represented the true France. After 1940, while the French colonies in Equatorial Africa went over to de Gaulle, Algeria remained pro-Vichy; thus, within three years, Algerians found their loyalty invoked first to Pétain, then to Darlan, then Giraud and finally de Gaulle. But even after the rise to eminence of de Gaulle, it was the shadow of the Allied colossus in the background that constantly obscured the rekindled, feeble light of the présence française in Algeria. Landing — once again at Sidi-Ferruch — in November 1942, the Anglo-Americans with their overwhelming weight of war material and the power and riches that this implied, in contrast to the puny resources of the Vichy French, made a powerful impact on the Algerian nationalists. They were also soon aware of the anti-colonialist creed of Roosevelt's America, and Abbas had several meetings with Bob Murphy, the President's personal representative in Algiers, to explore the possibility of applying the Atlantic Charter to Algeria.

XREF: Connects to the division between Free France and Vichy, and how imperial subjects were caught between competing claims to legitimacy.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 119