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76-558: The Supreme Court of Justice ( Cour suprême de justice ), created by a decree issued by Pétain on 30 July 1940, was empowered to judge: 1 Les ministres, les anciens ministres ou leurs subordonnés immédiats, civils et militaires, accusés d'avoir commis des crimes ou délits dans l'exercice ou à l'occasion de leurs fonctions, ou d'avoir trahi les devoirs de leur charge; 2 Toute personne accusée d'attentat contre la sûreté de l’État et de crimes et délits connexes; 3 Tout coauteur ou complice des personnes visées aux paragraphes précédents. 1st,

152-553: A United States of Europe , and participated in drafting the constitution for the Fifth Republic , but resigned from government in 1962 after disagreement with President de Gaulle over changes to the electoral system. Reynaud was born in Barcelonnette , Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the son of Alexandre and Amelie (née Gassier) Reynaud. His father had made a fortune in the textile industry, enabling Reynaud to study law at

228-434: A samurai who had been educated at Cambridge ". His head was set deep between his shoulders, and he had "a sharp, nasal, metallic voice" and "mechanical" bearing. By his first marriage in 1912 to Jeanne Anne Henri-Robert, he was the father of a daughter, Collette, born in 1914. At some time in the early 1920s, Reynaud was introduced to Hélène Rebuffel by André Tardieu , a friend of her father's. Rebuffel's father, however,

304-517: A community of action for so long as may be necessary". On 15 June 1940, the French cabinet rejected a British proposal—conceived by Jean Monnet and supported by De Gaulle—for a union between France and Britain. Reynaud abandoned the idea of a "long war strategy" based on attrition. To divert German attention from France, Reynaud considered expanding the war to the Balkans or Northern Europe. He played

380-542: A firing-squad and died singing the Marseillaise ... Thus, I have nothing to add concerning the PCF. " Although the court was supposed to investigate only the period from 1936 to 1940, excluding military operations from September 1939 to June 1940 , the defendants refused to accept this and demonstrated how the responsibility of the defeat of 1940 rested mainly on failures of the French general staff . They also showed that

456-621: A key role in initiating the Allied campaign in Norway , although it ended in failure. Following Britain's decision to withdraw on 26 April, Reynaud travelled to London to personally urge the British to continue their fight in Norway . The Battle of France began less than two months after Reynaud assumed office. The initial German attack in early May 1940 severely damaged French defences, and Paris

532-428: A limited program of economic reform that was not to Daladier's satisfaction; Reynaud and Marchandeau swapped portfolios, and Reynaud went ahead with his radical liberalization reforms. Reynaud's reforms were implemented, and the government faced down a one-day strike in opposition. Reynaud addressed France's business community, arguing that "We live in a capitalist system. For it to function we must obey its laws. These are

608-547: A meeting in London with Churchill. During the meeting, Churchill informed the War Cabinet that Reynaud had declared the French military situation as hopeless. Reynaud stated he had no intention of signing a separate peace with Germany but might be compelled to resign, leaving the possibility that others in the French government could sign such a treaty. Churchill also mentioned that he did not rule out talks with Mussolini , who

684-565: A polemic against Eugen Dühring , and Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme against Ferdinand Lasalle . Vladimir Lenin published polemics against political opponents. The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky was notably directed against Karl Kautsky , and other works such as The State and Revolution attacked figures including Eduard Bernstein . In the 20th century, George Orwell 's Animal Farm

760-473: A profound sense of guilt for 20 years over allowing Pétain to come to power and offered increasingly convoluted explanations for the events that transpired. Despite Reynaud's own fighting spirit and a brief moment of indecision on 26 May, he regretted not being able to emulate Clemenceau , France's great wartime Prime Minister from 1917 to 1918, and he never forgave himself for failing to be another de Gaulle. Reynaud later claimed he had hoped Pétain would resign if

836-442: A telegram to Reynaud confirming that there would be no immediate approach to Mussolini, although the option remained open. Mussolini had already rejected an overture by President Roosevelt based on suggestions from Britain and France. It was also revealed on 28 May that Italy was preparing to enter the war on Germany's side, which would occur on 10 June. In early June, Charles de Gaulle , whom Reynaud had long supported and one of

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912-635: A war entailed would stamp out France's recovery. The French Right was ambivalent about the war in late 1939 and early 1940, feeling that the Soviets rather than Nazi Germany were the greater long-term threat. Daladier regarded the war with Germany as the greater priority and so refused to send aid to the Finns, who were under attack from the USSR, then loosely allied to Germany, in the Winter War . News that

988-538: A way of preventing future wars and a recurrence of the Nazi atrocities. Reynaud presided over the consultative committee that drafted the constitution of France's (current) Fifth Republic . In 1962, he denounced his old friend de Gaulle's replacement of the electoral college system by a direct public vote for the Presidency. Reynaud left office the same year. Reynaud was a physically small man, with "the countenance of

1064-558: Is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics , which are seen in arguments on controversial topics. A person who writes polemics, or speaks polemically, is called a polemicist . The word derives from Ancient Greek πολεμικός ( polemikos )  'warlike, hostile', from πόλεμος ( polemos )  'war'. Polemics often concern questions in religion or politics. A polemical style of writing

1140-603: Is incomprehensible to us but which is perhaps better suited than any other to reveal the causes of this new war." It was then decided that the trial should be stopped in order to avoid further disappointment. The German ambassador to Vichy France, Otto Abetz , on orders from Germany, told Laval that the trial was becoming detrimental and should be abandoned. On 14 April 1942, the trial was suspended, allegedly so that "additional information" could be obtained. It formally ended on 21 May 1943. Blum and Daladier were later deported to Germany and interned at Buchenwald concentration camp in

1216-470: The 40-hour working week and paid leave for workers and had nationalised some businesses, had undermined France's industrial and defence capabilities. The left-wing Popular Front government was also held to have been weak in suppressing "subversive elements and revolutionists." Owing to the changing international context, including the June 1941 invasion of the USSR , and deterioration of popular support for

1292-595: The Battle for Castle Itter on 5 May 1945, Major Josef Gangl , a Wehrmacht officer who had joined the anti-Nazi Austrian resistance , was killed by a sniper's bullet while attempting to protect Reynaud and other prisoners. After the war, Reynaud was elected in 1946 as a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was appointed to several cabinet positions in the post-war period and remained a prominent figure in French politics. His attempts to form governments in 1952 and 1953 in

1368-525: The June 1940 armistice agreed by the Vichy government had been signed even though the French Army still possessed considerable forces in metropolitan France . Journalists from neutral countries were allowed to cover the trial, and their reports praised the conduct of the defendants, particularly Blum, and condemned the basis of the trial, although they conceded that president of court Caous had conducted

1444-634: The Maginot Line . He strongly opposed appeasement in the run-up to the Second World War. He also clashed with his party on economic policy, backing the devaluation of the franc as a solution to France's economic woes. Pierre Étienne Flandin , the leader of the Democratic Republican Alliance, agreed with several of Reynaud's key policy stances, particularly on Reynaud's defence of economic liberalism. The franc

1520-545: The Sorbonne . He entered politics and was elected to the French Chamber of Deputies from 1919 to 1924, representing Basses-Alpes , and again from 1928, representing a Paris district. Although he was first elected as part of the conservative "Blue Horizon" bloc in 1919, Reynaud shortly thereafter switched his allegiance to the centre-right Democratic Republican Alliance party, later becoming its vice-president. In

1596-646: The interwar period , noted for his economic liberalism and vocal opposition to Nazi Germany . Reynaud opposed the Munich Agreement of September 1938, when France and the United Kingdom gave way before Hitler 's proposals for the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. After the outbreak of World War II , Reynaud became the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic in March 1940. He

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1672-602: The 18th century include Jonathan Swift , with pamphlets such as his A Modest Proposal , Alexander Hamilton , with pieces such as A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress and A Farmer Refuted , and Edmund Burke , with his attack on the Duke of Bedford . In the 19th century, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 's 1848 Communist Manifesto was extremely polemical. Both Marx and Engels would publish further polemical works, with Engels's work Anti-Dühring serving as

1748-531: The 1920s, Reynaud developed a reputation for laxity on German reparations, at a time when many in the French government backed harsher terms for Germany. In the 1930s during the Great Depression , particularly after 1933, Reynaud's stance hardened against the Germans at a time when all nations were struggling economically. Reynaud backed a strong alliance with the United Kingdom and, unlike many others on

1824-626: The Cabinet meeting on the evening of 12 June, it was evident that a significant faction was pushing for an armistice, leading to the decision to relocate the government to Bordeaux rather than retreat to a fortified Brittany. During the subsequent Anglo-French conference in Tours on 13 June, Reynaud requested to be released from the agreement he had made with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in March 1940, so that France could pursue an armistice. Churchill expressed understanding but did not agree with

1900-529: The Castle Itter in 1943) at Versailles in the same year, at the age of 71. Mabire had already borne him a son, Serge Paul-Reynaud, in 1945; they had two more children, Evelyne, in 1949, and Alexandre in 1954. Reynaud died on 21 September 1966 at Neuilly-sur-Seine , leaving a number of writings. Changes Polemicist Polemic ( / p ə ˈ l ɛ m ɪ k / pə- LEHM -ick , US also /- ˈ l i m ɪ k / -⁠LEEM-ick )

1976-801: The Commander-in-Chief, stormed into Reynaud's office and demanded an armistice. That night, around 11 pm, Reynaud and de Gaulle left Paris for Tours, with the rest of the government following the next day. De Gaulle was unable to persuade Reynaud to dismiss Weygand. At the Anglo-French conference held at the Château du Muguet in Briare on 11–12 June, Churchill urged the French to continue fighting, either from Brittany, French North Africa, or through guerrilla warfare. However, he faced strong resistance from Deputy Prime Minister Marshal Pétain . By

2052-551: The Comtesse Hélène de Portes —a Fascist sympathizer—were pressuring him to seek an armistice. On 14 June, Villelume and de Portes met with American diplomat Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. and stated that France had no choice but to seek an armistice, although Biddle was sceptical of their claims. At the Cabinet meeting on 15 June, Reynaud proposed that France follow the Dutch example and lay down its arms to continue

2128-523: The Czechs to the Germans, while Flandin felt that allowing Germany to expand eastward would inevitably lead to a conflict with the Soviets that would weaken both. Reynaud publicly made his case, and in response Flandin pamphleted Paris in order to pressure the government to agree to Hitler's demands. Reynaud subsequently left his party to become an independent. However, Reynaud still had the support of Daladier, whose politique de fermeté ("policy of firmness")

2204-446: The Finns had sued for peace in March 1940 prompted Flandin and Pierre Laval to hold secret sessions of the legislature that denounced Daladier's actions; the government fell on 19 March. The government named Reynaud Prime Minister of France two days later. Despite Reynaud's growing popularity, the Chamber of Deputies elected him as Premier by a narrow margin of just one vote, with most of his own party abstaining. Notably, over half of

2280-917: The French Ambassador to the US, but Lebrun refused to confirm the appointment, possibly because he admired Reynaud and wished to protect him from association with the Pétain government. Reynaud and de Portes left the Hotel Splendid in Bordeaux, driving southeast to avoid the advancing German armies. They intended to stop at Reynaud's holiday home in Grès, Hérault (some sources suggest they were heading for his daughter's home in Sainte-Maxime ) before fleeing to North Africa. On 28 June, while Reynaud

2356-532: The French Right, better relations with the Soviet Union as a counterweight against the Germans. Reynaud held several cabinet posts in the early 1930s, but he clashed with members of his party after 1932 over French foreign and defense policy. In June 1934, Reynaud defended in the Chamber of Deputies the need to devalue the French franc, whose belonging to the gold standard was increasingly harmful for

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2432-485: The French economy, but in those years French public opinion was opposed to any devaluation. He was not given another cabinet position until 1938. Like Winston Churchill , Reynaud was a maverick in his party and often alone in his calls for rearmament and resistance to German aggrandizement. Reynaud was a supporter of Charles de Gaulle 's theories of mechanized warfare in contrast to the static defense doctrines that were in vogue among many of his countrymen, symbolized by

2508-517: The Germans instead; Mandel was later executed by the Vichy regime's Milice . The five who stood trial were: More than 400 witnesses were called, many of them soldiers who were supposed to testify that the French army was not adequately equipped to resist the Wehrmacht invasion of May–June 1940. It was alleged that Blum's legislation, enacted after the 1936 Matignon Agreements which had introduced

2584-662: The Vichy regime, Marshal Philippe Pétain decided to speed up the process. He thus announced on the radio, prior to the beginning of the trial, that he would himself condemn the guilty parties after having heard the advice of the Political Justice Council ( Conseil de justice politique ) which he had set up. Pétain was entitled to such an act after the Constitutional decree of 27 January 1941. The newly created Political Justice Council handed in its conclusions on 16 October 1941. After Pétain's condemnation of

2660-602: The ancient historian Polybius practiced "quite bitter self-righteous polemic" against some twenty philosophers, orators, and historians. Polemical writings were common in medieval and early modern times. During the Middle Ages, polemic had a religious dimension, as in Jewish texts written to protect and dissuade Jewish communities from converting to other religions . Medieval Christian writings were also often polemical; for example in their disagreements on Islam or in

2736-415: The armistice terms were too harsh; Jackson considers this to be wishful thinking. There were suggestions that Reynaud might have mustered a Cabinet majority for continuing the fight, but he later argued that he could not counter the political influence of the "softs", particularly Pétain and Weygand, France's leading military figures. Spears observed that Reynaud seemed relieved to be free of his burden. In

2812-461: The condition that the French fleet remained out of German hands. On the same day, Reynaud threw two glasses of water at de Portes during dinner after discovering a key telegram in her bed, which had gone missing. On 16 June, de Portes was frequently seen at Reynaud's office, leading US diplomats to suspect her presence was significant. President Roosevelt 's reply to Reynaud's inquiry, indicating limited assistance without Congressional approval,

2888-617: The court was from 1936 (the beginning of the Popular Front administration, under Léon Blum ) to 1940 and Paul Reynaud 's cabinet. The trial, supported by the Nazis , had the secondary aim of demonstrating that the responsibility of the war rested with France (which had officially declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, two days after the invasion of Poland ) and not with Adolf Hitler and his policies. Once started in February 1942,

2964-468: The element of surprise. When the French Cabinet met in Bordeaux that afternoon, Reynaud presented the British union plan and, with Georges Mandel , declared his resolve to continue fighting. However, the proposal was no longer enough to sway the wavering ministers. Contrary to Lebrun's later recollection, no formal vote taken that day. The outcome was unclear: ten ministers wanted to continue

3040-471: The few French commanders to achieve success against the Germans in May 1940, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed undersecretary of war. Reynaud wavered somewhat upon his return from London on 26 May but remained committed to continuing the fight. However, he was unable to convince enough of his colleagues to support this stance. Italy entered the war on 10 June, and on the same day, General Weygand,

3116-438: The fight from abroad. Pétain showed some sympathy for this idea, and he was sent to speak with General Weygand, who argued that this would be a dishonourable surrender. Chautemps then suggested a compromise of inquiring about terms, which the Cabinet approved by a vote of 13–6. Reynaud attempted to resign on the spot but was vehemently opposed by Lebrun. Admiral Darlan , who had previously opposed an armistice, agreed to it on

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3192-589: The fight, seven, including Deputy Prime Ministers Pétain and Chautemps , favoured an armistice, and eight were undecided but ultimately leaned towards accepting an armistice. Lebrun reluctantly accepted Reynaud's resignation, and the French government, at this critical moment, fell into the hands of Pétain and those advocating for an armistice and collaboration with the German invader. De Gaulle later described Reynaud as "a man of great worth unjustly crushed by events beyond measure". Julian Jackson notes that Reynaud felt

3268-462: The former ministers, or their immediate subordinates, had betrayed the duties of their offices by way of acts which contributed to the transition from a state of peace to a state of war before September 1939, and which after that date worsened the consequences of the situation thus created. " The crimes with which the defendants were charged were retrospectively created, i.e. at the time these acts were allegedly carried out, they had not been illegal. This

3344-518: The immediate aftermath of his resignation, Reynaud appeared to be in denial, still hoping to meet Churchill at Concarneau on 17 June. However, Churchill, who was at Waterloo Station, had cancelled his travel plans upon learning of Reynaud's resignation. Jules Jeanneney and Édouard Herriot , Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, respectively, urged President Lebrun to reappoint Reynaud as Prime Minister, as all four men wanted to continue

3420-421: The laws of profits, individual risk, free markets, and growth by competition." With Reynaud as Minister of Finance, the confidence of the investors returned and the French economy recovered. Reynaud's reforms involved a massive austerity program (although armament measures were not cut). At the outbreak of war, however, Reynaud was not bullish on France's economy; he felt that the massive increase in spending that

3496-436: The ministers, the former ministers, civil and military, accused of having committed crimes or délits while carrying their duties or on the occasion thereof, or of having betrayed the duties of their offices; 2nd, every person accused of having attacked the security of the state and of connected crimes or délits ; 3nd, every co-perpetrator or accomplice of the persons targeted by the above paragraphs. The period examined by

3572-484: The other hand, he showed that the Popular Front had made the greatest war efforts since 1918. Blum even defended the French Communist Party (PCF), declaring about Jean-Pierre Timbaud , a Communist who had been executed along with 26 other communist hostages in retaliation for the assassination of a Nazi official ( Karl Hotz ), the following: " I was often opposed to him. However, he has been executed by

3648-518: The political responsibles, the Riom Trial was supposed to try the men as citizens . Although the president of the court, Pierre Caous, declared at the outset that the trial was not to be a political one, it was widely seen as a show trial , in France and abroad. The trial began on 19 February 1942 before the Vichy regime's Supreme Court of Justice, which was empowered by a decree to " judge whether

3724-408: The regime. By April, the Germans were increasingly irritated by what they saw as the incompetent conduct of the trial. Hitler declared on 15 March 1942: "A trial is taking place these days in France, whose main characteristic is that not a word is spoken about the guilt of those responsible for this war. Only a lack of preparation for war is being discussed. We are here looking at a mentality which

3800-460: The request. That evening, Pétain, who strongly supported Weygand's call for an armistice, announced his intention to remain in France to share the suffering of the French people and begin a national renewal. President Albert Lebrun refused Reynaud's resignation on 13 June. Edward Spears noted that Reynaud was under immense stress starting the evening of 13 June. Paul Baudouin and Marie-Joseph Paul de Villelume, along with Reynaud's mistress,

3876-465: The section reserved for high-ranking prisoners. As the Allied armies approached Buchenwald, they were transferred to Dachau , near Munich , and in late April 1945, together with other notable inmates , to Tyrol . They were rescued in May 1945. Paul Reynaud Paul Reynaud ( French: [pɔl ʁɛno] ; 15 October 1878 – 21 September 1966) was a French politician and lawyer prominent in

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3952-429: The transfer of power the next day, and allocated money to de Gaulle. De Gaulle, accompanied by Edward Spears, flew to London at 9 a.m. on 17 June and made his famous broadcast the following day, declaring his intent to continue the fight. Although it has been suggested that Reynaud ordered de Gaulle to go to London, no written evidence has ever confirmed this. Reynaud later tentatively accepted Pétain's offer to become

4028-436: The trial did not go according to plan. The defendants were largely successful in rebutting the charges, and won sympathetic coverage in the international press. The trial was eventually suspended in March 1942, and formally abandoned in May 1943. There were originally seven defendants at the Riom Trial, though Pétain later withdrew the charges against Paul Reynaud and Georges Mandel without explanation, surrendering them to

4104-492: The trial fairly. This generated sympathy for the defendants in many countries: Eleanor Roosevelt sent Blum a telegram on his birthday in April 1942, and on 9 April 1942 The New York Times published an article titled "To Léon Blum". The Vichy state-controlled press in France, however, reported the opening of the trial with great fanfare, but thereafter reported less and less of the proceedings, as most of them were unfavourable to

4180-604: The turbulent politics of the French Fourth Republic were unsuccessful. Reynaud supported the idea of a United States of Europe , along with a number of prominent contemporaries. He was a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe for ten years, from 1949 to 1959, [3] where he worked alongside his old wartime allies Churchill , Spaak and others to build a united Europe as

4256-690: The vast corpus aimed at converting the Jews. Martin Luther 's 95 Theses was a polemic launched against the Catholic Church. Robert Carliell 's 1619 defence of the new Church of England and diatribe against the Roman Catholic Church – Britaine's glorie, or An allegoricall dreame with the exposition thereof: containing The Heathens infidelitie in religion ... – took the form of a 250-line poem. Major political polemicists of

4332-769: The votes in Reynaud's favour came from the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) party. Given the significant support from the left and opposition from many right-wing parties, Reynaud's government faced considerable instability. Many on the right called for Reynaud to shift focus from Germany to the Soviet Union. Additionally, the Chamber mandated that Daladier, whom Reynaud personally blamed for France's weaknesses, serve as Reynaud's Minister of National Defence and War . One of Reynaud's initial actions

4408-535: The war alongside Britain. De Gaulle called Reynaud to inform him of the British Cabinet's agreement to the proposal, reporting that "a sensational declaration" was imminent. Time was critical, and de Gaulle dictated the "Declaration of Union" to Reynaud over the phone, enabling him to present it to his Cabinet that afternoon in an attempt to counter the armistice faction. Unknown to Reynaud, General Weygand had ordered his phone to be tapped, depriving Reynaud of

4484-514: The war from North Africa. Lebrun felt compelled to appoint Pétain, who was prepared with a ministerial team, as Prime Minister. Pétain became the head of the new government—the last of the Third Republic—and signed the armistice on 22 June. De Gaulle returned to Bordeaux around 10 pm on 16 June and visited Reynaud, who still hoped to relocate to North Africa and declined to go to London. Reynaud retained control of secret government funds until

4560-498: Was a lawyer as well as a politician and polemicist , turned on what was widely recognised as a brilliant performance, cross-examining the government's witnesses and exposing the falsity and illegitimacy of the charges. He argued that the largest reductions in defence spending under the Third Republic had taken place under governments in which both Pétain and Pierre Laval , the Vichy regime's prime minister, had held offices. On

4636-454: Was a polemic against totalitarianism , in particular of Stalinism in the Soviet Union . According to McClinton, other prominent polemicists of the same century include such diverse figures as Herbert Marcuse , Noam Chomsky , John Pilger , and Michael Moore . In 2007 Brian McClinton argued in Humani that anti-religious books such as Richard Dawkins 's The God Delusion are part of

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4712-631: Was also vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right party. Reynaud was Prime Minister during the German defeat of France in May and June 1940; he persistently refused to support an armistice with Germany and unsuccessfully attempted to save France from German occupation in World War II, and resigned on 16 June. After unsuccessfully attempting to flee France, he was arrested by Philippe Pétain 's administration. Surrendering to German custody in 1942, he

4788-499: Was arrested on Pétain's orders and imprisoned at Fort du Portalet . Although Pétain chose not to charge Reynaud during the Riom Trial of 1942, he handed him over to the Germans. Reynaud was initially sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later transferred to Itter Castle near Wörgl , Austria. There, he remained with other high-profile French prisoners until the castle was liberated by Allied troops on 7 May 1945. During

4864-581: Was attending a meeting of the Anglo-French Supreme War Council in London on 28 March 1940. The meeting culminated in a declaration with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , stating that neither country would seek a separate peace . The joint communiqué asserted, "Both Governments mutually undertake that during the present war they will neither negotiate nor conclude an armistice or treaty of peace except by mutual agreement. They undertake to maintain after conclusion of peace

4940-820: Was common in Ancient Greece , as in the writings of the historian Polybius . Polemic again became common in medieval and early modern times. Since then, famous polemicists have included satirist Jonathan Swift , Italian physicist and mathematician Galileo , French theologian Jean Calvin , French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher Voltaire , Russian author Leo Tolstoy , socialist philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , novelist George Orwell , playwright George Bernard Shaw , communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin , linguist Noam Chomsky , social critics H.L.Mencken Christopher Hitchens and Peter Hitchens , and existential philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche . Polemical journalism

5016-559: Was common in continental Europe when libel laws were not as stringent as they are now. To support study of 17th to 19th century controversies, a British research project has placed online thousands of polemical pamphlets from that period. Discussions of atheism, humanism, and Christianity have remained open to polemic into the 21st century. In Ancient Greece , writing was characterised by what Geoffrey Lloyd and Nathan Sivin called "strident adversariality" and "rationalistic aggressiveness", summed up by McClinton as polemic. For example,

5092-420: Was contrary to the principle of nullum crimen, nulla poena sine praevia lege poenali which forbids retroactive application of penal law. Gamelin, the former commander-in-chief of the French Army, refused to recognise the right of the court to try him and maintained complete silence. La Chambre and Jacomet were seen as minor figures. Daladier and Blum were thus left to carry the burden of the defence. Blum, who

5168-496: Was devalued, in a range between 25% and 34%, by the Popular Front government presided by Leon Blum on 1 October 1936. Reynaud returned to the cabinet in 1938 as Minister of Justice under Édouard Daladier . The Sudeten Crisis , which began not long after Reynaud was named Minister of Justice, again revealed the divide between Reynaud and the rest of the Alliance Démocratique; Reynaud adamantly opposed abandoning

5244-531: Was displeased at her relationship with a married man, actively seeking other suitors for her, and she was eventually persuaded to marry Comte Henri de Portes. After she had borne him two children, the marriage failed, and when Reynaud and his wife separated in 1938, Hélène de Portes was his mistress until her death in the road accident at Frontignan in 1940. Reynaud and his first wife were finally divorced in 1949. Reynaud then married Christiane Mabire (one of his former office assistants, who had voluntarily joined him at

5320-535: Was driving their Renault Juvaquatre , the car veered off the road and crashed into a plane tree at La Peyrade , near Sète . De Portes was almost decapitated in the accident, while Reynaud sustained relatively minor head injuries. While hospitalized in Montpellier , Reynaud reportedly told Bill Bullitt , the American ambassador, "I have lost my country, my honour, and my love." Upon his discharge, Reynaud

5396-541: Was imprisoned in Germany and later Austria until liberation in 1945, where he was released after the Battle of Itter Castle in which one of the leaders, German Major Josef Gangl , declared a hero by the Austrian resistance , took a sniper's bullet to save Reynaud. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1946, he became a prominent figure again in French political life, serving in several cabinet positions. He favoured

5472-477: Was received that morning. Churchill's telegram, also received on 16 June, proposed an armistice if the French fleet was moved to British ports—a condition unacceptable to Darlan, who feared it would leave France defenseless. That afternoon, de Gaulle was in London discussing a proposed Franco-British Union—a plan hastily put together by Churchill and his advisers to support Reynaud against those favouring an armistice and to keep France, especially its naval fleet, in

5548-708: Was still neutral at that time. Later that day, Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax met with Reynaud before his return to France. This marked the beginning of the British May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis , where Halifax supported what was known as "the Reynaud Option"—exploring negotiations with the Italians for acceptable peace terms, potentially involving concessions in the Mediterranean. However, Churchill ultimately overruled Halifax. On 28 May, Churchill sent

5624-446: Was the best way for France to regain investors' confidence again and escape the stagnation its economy had fallen into. The collapse of Léon Blum 's government in 1938 was a response to Blum's attempt to expand the regulatory powers of the French government; there was therefore considerable support in the French government for an alternative approach like Reynaud's. Paul Marchandeau , Daladier's first choice for finance minister, offered

5700-721: Was under threat. On 15 May, just five days after the invasion began, Reynaud reached out to Churchill and famously remarked, "We have been defeated... we are beaten; we have lost the battle... The front is broken near Sedan ." The dire state of French equipment and morale was underscored by a postcard found on the body of an officer who had committed suicide in Le Mans . The postcard read: "I am killing myself Mr President to let you know that all my men were brave, but one cannot send men to fight tanks with rifles." On 18 May, Reynaud dismissed Commander-in-Chief Maurice Gamelin and replaced him with Maxime Weygand . On 26 May, Reynaud attended

5776-472: Was very similar to Reynaud's notion of deterrence. Reynaud, however, had always wanted the Finance ministry. He endorsed radically liberal economic policies in order to draw France's economy out of stagnation, centered on a massive program of deregulation, including the elimination of the forty-hour work week. The notion of deregulation was very popular among France's businessmen, and Reynaud believed that it

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