Word: taine
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Frenchmen heard the final contrast between the leader of Vichy, Marshal Pétain, and the leader in exile, General de Gaulle. The Old Man of Vichy, magnificent only in his consistency, begged his countrymen to ignore Allied or Gaullist commands, and to obey the Germans lest Nazi reprisal fall on France. General de Gaulle, shunned until the last moment, instructed them to heed "the French Government" (i.e., his own), and said: "France, overwhelmed . . . but never conquered, is on her feet to take part. . . . The simple, sacred duty is to fight...
...idol, old Marshal Pétain, himself a rebel in his younger days, dismissed it all as "witticisms." De Gaulle got his colonelcy at a reasonably early age (47), but that was poor comfort. Just before the Germans fell upon France, he wrote one last memorandum, warning of the danger in trusting to the forests around Sedan in lieu of proper defenses. Nobody paid attention. Frustrated, agonizingly sure of what was to happen, equally sure that he might have saved France, Charles de Gaulle went into battle...
Soon after the war, De Gaulle married and had a son, named Philippe. The boy's godfather was De Gaulle's old Commandant Philippe Pétain. Mme. de Gaulle, Yvonne Vendroux of Calais, also presented her husband with two daughters: Elisabeth, now a trained nurse, and Anne, who has never been well. Nearest thing to a personal anecdote: when first the ungainly Captain called upon the Vendroux family, he spilled a cup of tea on Yvonne's best frock...
...dismal old Loire chateau on June 13, the Ministers and the generals assembled to deliberate the fate of France. Reynaud presided, flanked by Pétain and Weygand. The rest gathered around the long table, with young General de Gaulle inconspicuously seated near the lower end. They had a distinguished visitor. Winston Churchill...
Coldly General Weygand analyzed the situation. Hopeless, he said; nothing to do but give up. Churchill recalled the dark spring days of 1918, when the British were in desperate straits around St. Quentin and Marshal Pétain dispatched a force in the nick of time. Churchill reminded the old Marshal that bold action then brought victory on Nov. 11. Yes, said the Marshal, but where is there a British force to save the French today? Churchill had no answer; Dunkirk had robbed him of everything except the will to fight. It had robbed Pétain of everything...