This is the fourth in a series. Here are parts one to three:
- The Intelligent American’s Guide to the French Right, I
- The Intelligent American’s Guide to the French Right II: Maurras and Mussolini
- The Intelligent American’s Guide to the French Right III: Condemnation, Missed Opportunities, and Vindication
Marshal, here we are!
You gave us back hope
The Fatherland will be reborn,
Marshal, Marshal,
Here we are!You fought unceasingly
For the common salvation
We speak tenderly
About Verdun’s hero…— André Montagard, “Marshal, Here We Are!”
THE France that entered the Second World War in September of 1939 was extremely divided. The French Right — Monarchist Maurrassian, Monarchist non-Maurassian, Catholic Republican, Authoritarian Republican, or Military — were avidly anti-German, and glad for another chance at the old enemy. The Socialists were far less gung ho, while the Communists, since the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact a year earlier were actively pro-German. Since its unhappy inception at Napoleon III’s deposition and France’s defeat at the hands of Germany in 1871, the Third Republic had lurched from one crisis to another — getting more progressively anti-Catholic with each step. This latter process was halted in 1914, remaining suspended for the duration of the Great War, and was then only half-heartedly resumed after that conflict. No one had the energy for this sort of squabble; the Depression did not help.
The one French governmental institution that had come through the First War with its reputation intact was the army. Marshal Petain was considered the real saviour of the country. Starting in the late 1920s, he began fostering the careers of a number of young officers. One of these was a Captain of Armour named Charles de Gaulle. Petain’s patronage ensured the rise of this cadre through the ranks; most of them were connected in some way with Action Francaise, and this was true of de Gaulle. Both through observation of the chaotic French political scene of the 20s and 30s and their own single-minded military patriotism, the traditional vision of the French Right of a governance above party was very attractive, whether this was seen in the context of a monarchy or an authoritarian republic. This was a vision that was also spreading in the civilian world.
After months of the so-called “Phoney War,” in which the Allied and German armies looked at each other whilst the Germans and Soviets crushed Poland in unison, the former invaded France and the Low Countries on May 10, 1940. Within a month the Dutch, Belgians, and Luxembourgers had surrendered, the British Expeditionary Force and some French and Belgians evacuated to Dunkirk, and the Germans were at the Aisne; Mussolini’s Italy attacked France on June 10. On June 14, the German invaders seized Paris; the French government had fled to Bordeaux. On June 22, an armistice was signed with Germany, and the Government and Parliament of the Third Republic abdicated power into the hands of Marshal Petain. The armistice allowed the Germans to occupy the entire Atlantic Coast, including Bordeaux; but in return they had to withdraw from a good chunk of central France, including the spa town of Vichy. The Marshal set up his headquarters there, and so his government came to be called “Vichy France.” But one cabinet under-minister had flown to London on June 17, and the following day issued a call to the French to continue the struggle; it was Charles de Gaulle, and those who rallied to him — very few in the beginning — took the name “Free France.”
With 20/20 hindsight, we can see that de Gaulle chose the winning side. But it is important to remember things looked very different at the time. Petain and his followers were far from happy about France’s defeat, but they felt that it was a result of the immorality and decadence of the Third Republic. Had not the French Communists acted as Fifth column during the brief campaign, blowing up bridges behind the retreating army and the like? The Marshal and his men wished to regenerate France, and to restore her dignity and her birthrate, so as to eventually reverse this defeat.
In the beginning, the new regime was staffed primarily by members of the Right, primarily Catholic, and many Monarchists. Seeing so many of his disciples, current and former, made policy makers under the Vichy Government, Charles Maurras hailed it as the “Divine Surprise” — even as he had mourned the defeat by the Germans he hated. Popular resentment toward the British was occasioned by their attack on the French Fleet near Oran in July of 1940. Not believing Petain’s assurances that he would never allow his navy to fall into German hands, Churchill ordered the assault, which killed 1,300 French sailors. From that time on, anti-British propaganda became a staple of Vicy broadcasts — but Petain would not forget his promise to his onetime ally.
In the immediate, the new government pushed through an ambitious programme of national reconstruction — the Revolution Nationale. Heavily inspired by Quadragesimo Anno and the Corporatist writings of such thinkers as de la Tour du Pin, it also ended much of the Third Republic’s anti-Catholic legislation. There were youth movements, and above all — initially — a great deal of optimism. In 1942, the birth rate started to rise; by 1945, it was higher than it had been for a century. But, of course, Hitler’s Germany had no interest in French regeneration, for all that the Fuehrer brought Napoleon’s son’s body from its resting place in Vienna to Les Invalides in Paris. Of course, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union the Communists suddenly remembered — as they did in the rest of occupied Europe — that they were supposed to be adherents of their own country’s cause. They began to push as well for control of the Resistance, as they did in the rest of Europe.
At first, Vichy inherited the entire French Empire overseas. French India, a handful of scattered towns in British India, immediately declared for Free France, as did French Polynesia. Syria and Madagascar were seized by British and Free French forces in 1941, while Japan — uncaring about Vichy French neutrality — occupied French Indochina the same year. In November of 1942, the British and Americans landed in French Morocco and Algeria, attacking Rommel’s Afrika Korps in Libya and Tunisia from the rear. The German response was to invade Vichy France.
This triggered several things. Petain ordered the French fleet at Toulon to scuttle itself, to avoid falling into German hands, in keeping with his promise to Churchill of two years before. Secondly, it ended whatever independence Petain had retained. Out of his cabinet and government went most of the Catholics and Monarchists, to join the ranks of the Resistance. In their place came personnel more congenial to the occupiers — ex-Socialists such as Pierre Laval, and former Communists like Marcel Deat. Colonel de la Rocque and his Croix de Feu had already joined the Free French.
As the German screws tightened around the Marshal, Franklin Roosevelt tried to do the same with de Gaulle. Indeed, at one point FDR tried to replace the Free French leader with someone more malleable. Not only did de Gaulle overcome these efforts, he openly defied the American president — as when the Free French seized the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique against FDR’s express orders. As the aging president became closer to Stalin, de Gaulle became ever more suspicious of his postwar intentions
The Free French under the Monarchist General, Leclerc de Hautecloque, had played a key role in the North African Campaign, and under the command of General Alphonse Juin with the other Allies took part in the invasion of Italy. In June of 1944 a token force of Free French joined in the Normandy invasion; the following month General de Lattre de Tassigny led the Free French in the landing in Provence. Joining with the other Allies in Central France, Juin joined de Gaulle in the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944. In the meantime, Petain and his government were arrested by the Germans and spirited off to Sigmaringen in Germany, where they would remain prisoners until freed by the Allies in 1945 — only to face trials as collaborators. They were fortunate to at least receive trials, given that somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 accused collaborators were murdered — many by Communists — without trial. Petain was sentenced to death, but de Gaulle, provisional head of the republic commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. Charles Maurras also was tried; he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but pardoned for his final illness in 1952.
As in the rest of Europe, the Left did their best to accuse the Right of collaboration. The reality was of course far more complex — not least because of the two-faced role played by the Communists, which wartime exigencies and the alliance with Stalin forced the governments of postwar Europe to ignore. Faced with the return of the prewar politicians, de Gaulle stepped down as head of the Provisional Government in 1946. The prewar Right war was divided by the roles its various figures had played, and their motivations thereto. This division has lasted down to the present, with a minority still holding the memory of Marshal Petain in respect, and others venerating that of General de Gaulle. Looking at to-day’s France, one might be forgiven for thinking that if the duo were resurrected, they would bury their differences and regain their former friendship in the face of modern France.
At any rate, by the time the Fourth Republic — a faithful imitation of the Third — was proclaimed in the wake of de Gaulle’s departure, the divided French Right now faced with their countrymen a variety of problems, which would shape their position when young Gary Potter arrived in the City of Light. We shall look at them in our next installment.
