France and the Nazi Menace: Intelligence and Policy Making 1933-1939
Peter Jackson
Abstract
This book examines the French response to the challenge posed by National Socialist Germany in the years 1933–1939. It focuses on the relationship between the intelligence on German intentions and capabilities and the evolution of French national policy from the rise of Hitler in 1933 to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Based on extensive archival research, it considers the nature of the intelligence process and the place of intelligence within the French policy-making establishment during the inter-war period. The central argument in the book is that the German threat was far fro ... More
This book examines the French response to the challenge posed by National Socialist Germany in the years 1933–1939. It focuses on the relationship between the intelligence on German intentions and capabilities and the evolution of French national policy from the rise of Hitler in 1933 to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Based on extensive archival research, it considers the nature of the intelligence process and the place of intelligence within the French policy-making establishment during the inter-war period. The central argument in the book is that the German threat was far from the only challenge facing French national leaders in an era of economic depression and profound ideological discord. Only after the national humiliation at the Munich Conference did the threat from Nazi Germany take precedence over France's internal problems in the making of policy.
Keywords:
France,
Germany,
National Socialists,
intelligence,
Hitler,
Second World War,
French national policy,
Nazi Germany,
Munich Conference,
economic depression
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2000 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198208341 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208341.001.0001 |
