Apologie de Philippe Pétain
Every nation has its Ephialtes, Benedict Arnold, Wang Jingwei, or Vidkun Quisling. For France in WWII, it’s Maréchal Philippe Pétain. Sure, he collaborated with the German fascist reich, but does he really merit his traitorous reputation?
For most of his life (1856–1951), Pétain lived in banality. In an era when French colonial armies were bellicosely marching in all four corners of the world, Pétain was stationed in the militarily uneventful Metropolitan France, slowly being promoted while developing a reputation for womanizing. In 1914, at the age of 58, stagnant at the rank of colonel, he bought a house and planned to retire, but Mars had other plans.
During the Grande Guerre (1914–1918), he quickly moved up in rank. He commanded the French Second Army at the Bataille de Verdun (i.e. French Armageddon), where was laureled with the sobriquet the Lion de Verdun. After the Great War, during the drunken Années Folles and the consequent hangover the Grande Dépression, he served in various military and government positions and reorganized the French military. On the eve of the Second World War, he was the most highly ranked officer in the France.
In 1940 the fascist reich invaded France and chased the French government out of Paris and into Vichy. Some members of the French government and military fled the country and formed an unrecognized government-in-exile headed by Charles de Gaulle. Pétain elected to remain in France, and after some discussions he became the head of state, mostly because he was the most liked person left in France. He agreed to the armistice with the fascist reich, blamed France’s defeat on secularism and liberalism, and reorganized France as an authoritarian state, known historiographically as Vichy France. At the time, Pétain was lauded as a hero and savior.
After the D-Day invasion, when the fascist reich was chased out of France, Pétain was abducted by the Nazis and forcibly relocated into the reich. At this point, because he was no longer in France, Pétain refused to further collaborate with the Nazis. After the war, Pétain’s Vichy France was declared retroactively illegal, and Pétain was tried for treason. Pétain voluntarily returned to France and submitted himself to justice. He was declared guilty and sentenced to death, but given his war record and service to his country, the sentence was reduced to lifetime imprisonment. Pétain died peacefully of old age a few years afterward.
Did Pétain really betray his country? During the fascist reich’s invasion, Fransisco Franco offered to allow Pétain to live in Spain. However, preferring to share the fate of his country, Pétain declined safety in exile. Scathingly Pétain argued that it was Charles de Gaulle who had betrayed France, given that de Gaulle did flee for exile. And Pétain, while he did pragmatically collaborate with the fascist reich, was not himself a Nazi. He dismissed the Nazi’s jingoistic and racist sophistries. His collaboration was more of matter of preventing the Nazis from annexing or destroying the entirely of France. Most significantly, Pétain willingly returned to France to face trial for treason. He was willing to submit to whatever judgment his people thought was fair. This doesn’t seem like the behavior of a seditious traitor.
