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2023-08-30 -Great Cultural Revolution

Collaborating With the Enemy: The Leaders of Vichy France

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Posted by Besoeker 2023-08-30 04:30|| || Front Page|| [10 views ] Top

#1 ...Read William Shirer's The Fall Of The Third Republic. Seventy years old but probably still the best single volume account of why and how things went so horribly wrong. Petain was a senile puppet, Laval a malevolent sociopath, and the others arrogant, anti-semitic opportunists.

One thing they all had in common: they (with the qualified exception of Petain) were perfectly willing to see France go down to brutal, grinding defeat just so they could be in charge.

Lemme know if that sounds familiar.

Mike

Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-08-30 06:09|| 2023-08-30 06:09|| Front Page Top

#2 Petain was a senile puppet, Laval a malevolent sociopath, and the others arrogant, anti-semitic opportunists.

"Lemme know if that sounds familiar."

Yes.

Posted by Skidmark 2023-08-30 06:40|| 2023-08-30 06:40|| Front Page Top

#3 Petain was a hero who stepped up to be the leader his country needed when the alternative was mass chaos. He knew he'd be villainized and accepted it.

The government that left Paris was still France's legitimate government. Degaulle, you say? You mean a colonel? A colonel who deserted his men and his nation to become a tool of foreigners? Petain isn't the only one who needs re-thinking.

Posted by Harcourt Tholuse6841 2023-08-30 10:20|| 2023-08-30 10:20|| Front Page Top

/\ Sorry HT, have we learned nothing from doddering old men seeking renewed relevance? No Gaullist here, but perhaps we should pick another French hero ?

May I suggest Mme Odette Brailly? There are many others of course.

Posted by Besoeker 2023-08-30 10:26|| 2023-08-30 10:26|| Front Page Top

#5 Mitterand was a Nazi sympathizer.

Posted by Jerens Black9355 2023-08-30 10:29|| 2023-08-30 10:29|| Front Page Top

#6 "After the fall of the government, Pétain was tried for treason by the new provisional government, led by Charles de Gaulle. He was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death, although due to his advanced age, this was commuted to life imprisonment. " It was the promises of "others" that Vichy kept that prompted this famous scene from Casablanca I suspect...

Posted by NoMoreBS 2023-08-30 11:46|| 2023-08-30 11:46|| Front Page Top

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