Word: laval
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...squeamish about suppressing underground resistance. One of the new appointees was Joseph Darnand, a former carpenter who received full power over French police, gendarmerie, secret service, militia, and the private armies of ultra-collaborationists like Marcel Déat and Jacques Doriot. Also, in the event of Puppet Pierre Laval's absence (which, of course, can be arranged at any time), Darnand is automatically to become "acting Chief of Government." Mourning somewhere in the shadows is Marshal Pétain (who had written to Laval that he "declined all personal responsibility for . . . the new Cabinet...
Vichy Nerves. Conflicting reports from Vichy merged into a confused, half-focused picture of a "capital" in a state of nervous bewilderment, heavily infested by German troops and French mobile guards. Political cliques slid madly about, trying to make "arrangements" with Marshal Pétain, with Pierre Laval, with the Germans, with the Allies, with each other...
...responsibility automatically and fully falls upon Laval, who henceforth is solely responsible toward France and Germany...
...Pierre Laval, having served with distinction as No. 1 Nazi puppet, has now been officially nominated for No. 1 French scapegoat...
Swiss newspapers reported that 100 ex-Senators and ex-Deputies had pledged Pétain full support, had followed their leader in denouncing Germanophile Pierre Laval. In passing, they took a vicious, inaccurate but perhaps effective cut at Charles de Gaulle-they said that he had "deserted the war declaration of 1939 and left France to suffer alone...