Hmm. Interesting. Haven’t heard that before.
Hard to imagine that France was “neutral” (maybe for show but not really, it seems to me). Also hard to imagine that America was ‘violating” whatever neutrality France claimed to have. Seems like America was in North Africa to fight the Germans and the Axis to make way for Italy, as part of America’s and the Allies’ goal to defeat Germany and the Axis.
I mean America probably “violated” something about Italy too when we invaded Italy, but it was something we had to do as part of winning the war and the Italians were actually glad we did.
Things work out when you do the right thing.
In the movie “The Big Red One”, the French resistance against the Americans was portrayed as one misguided officer’s reaction at one beach; the History Channel goes further and details tank battles between the French and Americans in the days following the invasion of North Africa. In the book “Kasserine” (about the battle of that name between Americans and Germans in North Africa), the US officers are concerned that the American troops have let their guard down because of the ease with which they defeated the French (the Renault tanks weren’t very good, and they were going up against Tigers later).
Italy was part of the Axis, and a legitimate target.