Petain was a national hero in the first half of his life, and by the eve of World War II, he was already the head of state of France. At that time, petain was sixty years old, and it was really unparalleled to get such an honor at such an age.
Petain is a veteran on the battlefield because he participated in the First World War. He served as brigade commander, division commander and army commander, and was appointed as the vice premier of the country, and finally became the national marshal.
When we mention Germany in World War II, we think of fascism. However, fascism is actually a political system, the ruling policy of the ruling party and the ruling policy of capitalism. Under the historical background at that time, the fascist system was recognized by many countries, and Spain and Italy became the first fascist countries. Even in Britain and France, there are many fascists, a bit like terrorists now. Not only the Taliban, but also other countries have joined, and many Europeans have joined terrorist organizations.
On the eve of World War II, Germany's economy was decadent. Since Hitler came to power, he began to engage in fascism in a drastic way. Fascism rose in Germany, and German industry began to rise. In less than a few years, Germany's economy is booming, so the fascist political system has attracted many countries.
Marshal Petain liked fascism to a certain extent, and even went to Spain to study the fascist regime as an ambassador abroad. Patten is a veteran of World War I and a national hero. His tactical theory is also the theory of the First World War .. Basically, it is the theory of defensive tactics, the most famous of which is maginot line. This is a military fortification built on the German-French border, with a huge amount of work. France was almost completed with the help of the whole country.
Marshal Petain thought that after the completion of maginot line, the French could rest easy. During his tenure, he lacked effective reform of the army and the country's economic development was poor. On the contrary, Germany's military industry has been greatly improved, especially Germany began to study new tactics, that is, mechanized troops.
The earliest person who studied the tactics of mechanized troops was precisely the French, that is, the famous Charles de Gaulle. But when Charles de Gaulle finished writing this book in a prison where prisoners of war were held, no one paid attention to it in France, but it became a textbook for senior German military personnel. This is a bit like Wei Yuan in the late Qing Dynasty. This thinker had many good ideas, which were of great help to China at that time. His Atlas of the Ocean didn't get much response in China. On the contrary, it became a Japanese best seller.
As a result, Germany naturally advanced in tactics because it absorbed advanced ideas. By World War II, the Germans were unstoppable, and many of them defeated France.
Marshal petain, who was only 18 years old at that time, was completely confused and knew very well that France could not compete with Germany. Maybe you will ask what Charles de Gaulle did at that time. Is he not an ideal politician? What about those people with lofty ideals in France?
The reality is that Charles de Gaulle was only a brigade commander at that time, and his position was far from Marshal Petain. Everyone else took orders from marshal petain, so France was basically under petain's rule. There are two main reasons why Petain finally chose to establish Vichy puppet regime in southern France.
First, Petain tends to be fascist, so when France was ruled by Germany, his ideological values were consistent with fascism.
The second marshal Petain saw that France was no match for Germany at all, and resistance was meaningless sacrifice. In order to reduce the sacrifice, it is better to surrender.
Of course, these two reasons were explained by Petain in the historical background at that time, but from the national point of view, Petain is undoubtedly a traitor in France and he will be punished. Finally, Petain was sentenced to death. Later, Charles de Gaulle exercised presidential privilege and sentenced Petain to life imprisonment.
Looking back at this history now, there is some helplessness and human weakness. As the old saying goes, there are no good flowers in a thousand days, but some mistakes can't be erased once they are committed for a lifetime. We have a long way to go and take every step.