« Un soldat nouveau » ? : La formation morale des officiers dans la France de Vichy

Résumé 0

This paper delves into the ethics training of the officers in the Armistice Army. Widely underestimated, this aspect remains not less vital in the pro-Vichy conception of national renovation and becomes one of the essential points in its program of reconstructing the country. Like the whole Nation, the army is called to reconstruct and to rethink. The officer, set up as example, becomes the spearhead of the National Revolution.A specific training, emphasizing ethics emerges then, stressing patriotism and leading by example. The training programs put forward the highest ideals, personal loyalty to Marshall Petain, zeal and energy, initiative ; general and professional knowledge take second place.But the Armistice Army’s missions and the goals of the National Revolution do not fit with the aims of the leading reformers who want to make France free again : the politics of collaboration with the occupant, the refusal to resume the fight are so many elements which contradict patriotism.The end of the Armistice Army does not entail a break in the officers’ training. Its thinkers and reformers profoundly marked and influenced the technics of training, long after the war.