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In 1939 and 1940, France faced a united, determined, and technologically-sophisticated enemy. Although it was desperately important for France to match its enemy's traits with determination and unity of its own, French national leaders instead frittered away their final months before the catastrophe
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correspondent in
Germany during the climactic events under discussion and as a frequent visitor to and correspondent from prewar France, Shirer was left to question how Germany had overrun France within weeks in 1940. Both countries had fought each other for four years in 1914-1918, with France
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further inflamed the feelings of bitterness. The right, in particular, believed that its country's secular leadership was condemning the country to
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had become thoroughly corrupt. Newspapers, in particular, were bought and paid for by political factions and served as their mouthpieces.
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in a round of internal hostility, intrigue and backbiting, which led to the restoration of World War I hero
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The Third
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The
Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940
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successfully resisting
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in 1938, but Hitler forced the issue the following year by his
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and France's will to fight and resist the invaders. After the
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