Search

On 13 November 1934, the French military attaché to Berlin, General Renondeau, sent a dramatic report to the Head of the Army General Staff. This note compared the military ability of France to Germany. Renondeau violently attacked French conscripts, arguing teachers and the international had corrupted them. This article analyses this report, arguing that the internal political context of France was generally responsible for the alarmist tone. Domestic political turmoil led him to exaggerate the unreliability of French conscripts and underestimate the difficulties of the German army. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the role of the French embassy in London during the pivotal period between the Munich Agreement of September 1938 and Germany's occupation of the rump Czechoslovakian state in March 1939. In particular, it focuses on the reports sent to the French foreign ministry by the ambassador, Charles Corbin, and his colleagues on the subject of British public, press and political opinion vis-a-vis appeasement. The aim of this article is threefold. First, it illustrates how French embassy staff perceived British public opinion, the sources from which such perceptions were derived, and the extent to which their reading of opinion was accurate. Second, it reveals how the apparent evolution of British public opinion, from support for appeasement at Munich to support for resistance after the Prague coup, was interpreted by French embassy officials and subsequently conveyed to Paris. Finally, it assesses the impact of French embassy reports on the wider foreign policy-making process, suggesting tentatively that indications of a British public tiring of appeasement encouraged Paris to pursue a politique de fermete independently of Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delving into a study of about fifty French embassies that were established under Louis XIV, the author demonstrates that the criteria of selection of the diplomatic personnel by the Sun King was directly related to the degree of confidence the King had in these officials. However, this degree of confidence was usually determined by a list of requirements reflecting those listed by numerous authors of works on the concept of the "perfect ambassador." Therefore this selection process reflects the progression of the thought of these authors, developing from a vision marked in humanism to a more rational understanding of the diplomatic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]