French Forces

Marshal Pétain and Pierre Laval

Marshal of France Phillipe Petain and Pierre Laval discuss the dismantling of the Third Republic, July, 1940. Pétain did not like Laval who, in common with most political leaders of the late Third Republic, was a thoroughly bourgeois political fixer. This sort of individual was not to appealing to "Our Marshal", who found them rather crude and unsophisticated, notwithstanding his own fairly modest rural origins. Pétain also adopted an increasingly autocratic - indeed monarchical - style as ruler of the "État Francaise", and tended to resent interference from the activities of underlings such as prime ministers. As a result, the relationship between Pétain and Laval was somewhat "in and out" for the period of the Vichy régime. Nevertheless, "Our Marshal" relied on politicians - principally Laval - to ensure that the Vichy government of political eccentrics and extremists, not to mention bureaucrats with a marked variety of profiles ranging form extreme Right wingers to conservative civil servants anxious only to preserve as much of the power of the Vichy régime as possible. After the war, unprotected by the aura of the Victor of Verdun, Laval was the most prominent of those politicians who opted to work fro Vichy to be sentenced to death and executed for treason. Best regards, JR.