ABSTRACT
Of all the regimes under which France has lived during the past two centuries, Vichy proved to be the most ephemeral, the least capable of putting down roots in the country. It could hardly have been otherwise, since the regime rested on the faulty premise that Germany would win the war. For the first year or so, when the fallacy of that premise had not yet been proved, the men of Vichy could properly begin to build a structure of government. But from 1941 onward, it became increasingly clear that their structure could never be more than a façade; that its total collapse might be postponed, but not finally averted.
