The quarrel between France's pro-war and pro-peace factions had continued for decades.
But at present, each faction had several key figures, and the quarrel was taking place among them.
To the French people, the government's decisions represented their own opinions. Yes, if the government decided to resist the German offensive to the bitter end, the French Army would still rush to the battlefield one after another, undaunted by death.
But if the government decided to retreat from this war, a large number of French people would also accept peace and abandon the glory their forebears had won more than a hundred years ago.
The truth was that simple and blunt. The so-called war was nothing more than a game between a few seasoned politicians and capitalists.
To ordinary people, no matter whether war ended in victory, all it brought them was endless casualties and grief.
The key figures in the pro-peace faction were the Minister of the Army, Field Marshal Petain, Army Chief of Staff Gamelin, and the current Prime Minister, Laval.
Their positions alone made it clear that every one of them stood at the very summit of France's political and military worlds. Thanks to their seniority, they also enjoyed lofty prestige and status in the political arena.
As for France's pro-war faction, its two most famous figures were currently Undersecretary of Defense Roman, the man who had pushed France into declaring war on Germany, and De Gaulle, commander of the Armored Corps of the Paris Garrison.
Whether in terms of official position or standing in the political arena, the two representatives of the pro-war faction could not possibly compare with the several representatives of the pro-peace faction.
If the German offensive had not been so frenzied, revealing an ambition to swallow all of Europe, the pro-war faction probably