La démoralisation des Français
Thanks are due to Chronicles Editor in Chief Paul Gottfried for his article “The Penitential History of Vichy France” in the November 2024 issue. Sharp and accurate as always, Prof. Gottfried summed up what I experienced during my student years at Sciences Po [the Paris Institute of Political Studies]. Historian Robert O. Paxton’s La France de Vichy was the holy gospel to which nobody could afford to approach critically. We were taught that all the French but the brave Communists were collaborators with the Nazi, and that as an illuminated student avant-garde we should tell the world how our ancestors were cowards.
De Gaulle was not held in great esteem, of course, because he was a kind of “fascist.” I never heard a professor admit that the first to organize resistance against the Nazis were people from the right, especially right-wing monarchists. The friendship between Hitler and Stalin was overlooked and explained as astuteness by the Uncle Joe. Marshal Pétain was also unjustifiable at Sciences Po, though for the common people of the time he was revered as the hero of Verdun, someone to trust and follow. And, in fact, his regime saved a lot.
If I look back at how I was taught French history, the entire purpose was to instill a sense of shame and dejection about my country. Nothing of the French past was good but the French Revolution, the new beginning that redeemed the sins of our history! Not to speak about colonization, especially in Algeria. It took me years after leaving university to get free from all the clichés. History has been weaponized to undermine the French national spirit; why should all the immigrants to France love a country that hates itself?
—Thibault Joannais
Florence, Italy
The Counter-Revolutionary Man
Thanks to Piers Shepherd and Chronicles for helping readers to remember Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in the final issue of 2024. If anyone is serious about counter-revolution in America in 2025, then “Dr. Plinio” is certainly a man to turn to for advice and strategy in confronting and hopefully overcoming the revolutionary left.
What I found most helpful in Mr. Shepherd’s article was just how well Corrêa de Oliveira delineated the forces of the Christian-hating revolutionaries, and how he described what motivates their passion for violence and social unrest. Hopefully those committed to the counter-revolution will read Piers’ article and learn more from, especially considering the tinderbox that American society has become.
In the article’s penultimate paragraph, the Mr. Shepherd notes the organization that Corrêa de Oliveira founded, Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP), is still around. Yes, they resist the revolution. Unfortunately, they have also been hawks for [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky and the proxy war on Russia. They have also been virtually silent on the Middle East conflicts.
Fortunately, Dr. Plinio and his work are available to inform the fight against those lusting after death, destruction, and power via war and revolution, and got some needed promotion thanks to Mr. Shepherd and Chronicles.
—Kenneth Reynolds
The Bronx, New York
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