![]() ![]() On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany, and by July 9 parliament had voted 569 to 80 to abandon the previous government, the Third Republic. While Prime Minister Paul Reynaud argued they should keep fighting, the majority of government officials felt otherwise. Within weeks, the Germans had pushed their way deep into France, and the French government was forced to make an impossible decision: regroup in their North African colonies and keep fighting, or sign an armistice with Germany. The so-called “Phoney War” ended abruptly in May, when Germany’s Blitzkrieg burst upon the French. When France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, following the German invasion of Poland, the French military spent eight months watching and waiting for the first strike. But what exactly was the Vichy regime? Were they hapless puppets of the Nazis, or genocidal collaborators? Was it the lesser of two evils-the choice between partial and total occupation-or a government that reflected the will of the people? To answer these questions and more, dive into the story of Vichy France, the government that ruled from June 1940 till August 1944.Īdolf Hitler (right) shakes hands with Philippe Pétain (left), the leader of the Vichy government. Today the term “Vichy France” is bandied about in discussions of French politics, American politics, and Islamist extremism. Yet as the National Interest reports, “Instead of welcoming with brass bands, as one sergeant predicted, Vichy France’s colonial forces fought back with everything they had.” ![]() After all, France had signed an armistice with Adolf Hitler on June 22, 1940, within weeks of being overrun by German soldiers. ![]() The invasion of North Africa-a joint venture between the United Kingdom and the United States known as Operation Torch-was intended to open up another front of the war, but the colonial power in the region was France, purportedly a neutral party in World War II. diplomatic relations with the Vichy government installed in France during WWII. Needless to say, it marked the end of U.S. On November 8, 1942, in the thick of World War II, thousands of American soldiers landed on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, while others amassed in Algeria, only to take immediate gunfire from the French. ![]()
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