Lecture on John Steward Ambler's The French Army in Politics: 1945-1962

page 3-Napoleon and Petain-separated by a century of civilian control over the military (“Great Mute”=”army does not engage in politics”)

4- Four themes of civil-military relations:
1) Unquestioning obedience-in order to overcome mutinous/undisciplined Napoleonic soldiers, army from 1815 on decided against political engagement

6- Boulanger crisis of 1880s-Minister of War whom pushed civilians toward military leadership of republic; eventually forced out in 1889 by aristocratic officers and general army noncommittal
2) Defense of Military Prerogatives

9- Example of Dreyfus Affair (Cpt. Alfred Dreyfus, questionable guilt of transmitting military secrets)-General Auguste Mercier (1894) pronounced guilt before court martial, creating need for obstruction and obfuscation by French military to maintain integrity

11-“As Lyautey himself often emphasized, colonial service both allowed and encouraged a disdain for those qualities of unquestioning obedience and careful attention to regulations so typical of the French garrison officer”

13-After WWI, Clemenceau, not Joffre, was First of Frenchmen (during an exceptional period, military given latitude because of weak government; but military never threatened sanctity of government)
3) Preferential Obedience
4) Rejection of Civil Authority

16-Only one incident of rejection of civil authority-Marshal Bazaine’s rejection of French regime in 1870 following the defeat to the Prussians; Bazaine felt right to determine legitimacy of new government, after German victory Bazaine court-martialed and imprisoned.

25-influences of military attitudes-1) social origins of officers rooted in conservative middle class, 2) lingering remnants of feudal and aristocratic tradition of military honor, 3) professionalization and isolation of French military community (military honor took on meaning after 1940, middle class ties inadequate to explain “military mind”)