[Opinion] Chamberlain and Petain

When the Nazis violated the arms control agreement and exhibited their war ambitions in the 1930s, then British Prime Minister Chamberlain turned a blind eye to the move and resorted to an appeasement policy. At the Munich Talks in 1938, he clinched a peace deal with Hitler in return for its implicit approval for consolidation with Czechoslovakia. Then, he assured the British people, “The war cloud has disappeared in Europe.”

Years after, however, the Germans attacked France and were besieging Paris in less a month. Then French army general and national hero of World War I came forward and joined hands with Hitler. He handed over Paris to the Germans by dividing the country into south and north without shooting a single shot at the invaders. Then, the old general became president himself of the pro-Nazi Vichy government established in the southern part of France.

When the war was over. De Gaulle, who had once served as a junior officer in Petain`s regiment, urged Petain to seek asylum. But, Petain rejected the offer, believing he had done the right thing by collaborating with the Third Reich to keep southern France from German forces. For his collaboration, however, he was sentenced to death for treason, as a leader he misled his people’s sense of national security before the enemy. With national opinions widely divided, in fact, many French intellectuals collaborated with Hitler and started the ‘Resistance’. He was also found guilty of providing financial aid to the enemy. Under Petain`s direction, French businesses produced war supplies for Germans and many young French people were sent to work in German factories.

As details on the wire transfer scandal began to be revealed amid the ongoing investigation by the independent council team, it reminds people of the humiliating past of France. The former president said it was a decision made for the country so as to stop a war. Petain also tried to justify his pro-Hitler government as an act of patriotism.

Now that the North’s nuclear program has become a serious threat and the truth about the wire transfer scandal is unraveling, the remarks by former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung increasingly sound unconvincing.

Looking back at the history of the world, national leaders in those countries bordering heavily-armed neighbors have had to face the same challenge – how to avoid war. There are several options and one of them is a gesture towards reconciliation. It works only when neighbors act rationally. Chamberlain and Petain, however, who believed Hitler and cooperated with him, failed completely in this sense. How will history remember the former president of Korea who had sought a reconciliatory policy with the North, a country exhibiting nuclear ambitions while its people were dying of famine? History and people will be the judge for this case in the end. History`s judgment, rather than the investigation by the independent council, will be a true reckoning day for those involved.

Ahn Se-young, Guest Writer and Professor at Sogang University, syahn@ccs.sogang.ac.kr