Varus, Varus, Where Are My Legions?

In prison: General Challe, General Zeller, Generals Nicot, Bigot, Gour-aud. Under indictment: Generals Vanuxem and Crévecoeur. Gone underground: General Salan, General Jouhaud, General Gardy. Resigned: Generals Pouilly, Beaufre, Souard, Huré, and (two weeks ago) General Olié, chief of the General Staff—following the example of his predecessor, General Ely. In public and unbending opposition to the regime: France’s highest-ranking soldier, Marshal Juin. Reassigned: General Massu, Generals X, Y, Z….

Summoned before the Special Military Tribunal for perfunctory trial, and sentencing to two, five, ten years of jail or concentration camp: hundreds, literally hundreds of colonels, commandants, majors of the army and air force. They stand erect, heads proudly high, France’s noblest decorations and the ribbons of her most bitter struggles across their tunics. The Tribunal still sits, after all these months, and these officers daily pass before it, each making his brief, straightforward, never cringing but often deeply puzzled declaration.

JB

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James Burnham

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In prison: General Challe, General Zeller, Generals Nicot, Bigot, Gour-aud. Under indictment: Generals Vanuxem and Crévecoeur. Gone underground: General Salan, General Jouhaud, General Gardy. Resigned: Generals Pouilly, Beaufre, Souard, Huré, and (two weeks ago) General Olié, chief of the General Staff—following the example of his predecessor, General Ely. In public and unbending opposition to the regime: France’s highest-ranking soldier, Marshal Juin. Reassigned: General Massu, Generals X, Y, Z….

Summoned before the Special Military Tribunal for perfunctory trial, and sentencing to two, five, ten years of jail or concentration camp: hundreds, literally hundreds of colonels, commandants, majors of the army and air force. They stand erect, heads proudly high, France’s noblest decorations and the ribbons of her most bitter struggles across their tunics. The Tribunal still sits, after all these months, and these officers daily pass before it, each making his brief, straightforward, never cringing but often deeply puzzled declaration.