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one on whose gifts I counted most, was seduced into an opposite [synarchist<br />

I.B.] course after is failure in the 1936 election." (Ibidem. p.18) The problem<br />

was more serious. De Gaulle had all <strong>of</strong> the General Staff against him, at the<br />

exception <strong>of</strong> the inventor <strong>of</strong> the tank, himself, General Estienne. General<br />

Weygand, General Gamelin, General Maurin, and the Marshals, Petin, Foch<br />

and J<strong>of</strong>fre, all were against de Gaulle's plan.<br />

The politicians were also hostile to his strategic ideas. Leon Blum<br />

wrote several articles against the "Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Soldiers and Pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />

Army." In one article called "Down with the Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Army," Blum<br />

attacked the idea <strong>of</strong> a specialized tank corps. The Army Committee <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Chamber <strong>of</strong> Deputies also rejected Paul Reynaud's bill. The report was<br />

written with the cooperation <strong>of</strong> the Army General Staff which stated that the<br />

reforms were "useless, undesirable, and had logic and history against it."<br />

Then the Minister <strong>of</strong> War, General Maurin, responded to the plan by<br />

stating: "{When we have devoted so many efforts to building up a<br />

fortified barrier, is it conceivable that we would be mad enough to go<br />

ahead <strong>of</strong> this barrier, into I do not know what adventure?" then he<br />

added. "What I have just told you is the government's view, and it, at<br />

least in my person, is perfectly familiar with the war plan.}"<br />

De Gaulle concluded that "{these words, which settle the fate <strong>of</strong> the<br />

specialized corps, at the same time lets those in Europe who had ears to<br />

hear know in advance that, whatever happened, France would<br />

undertake nothing beyond manning the Maginot Line.}"<br />

It was clear as daylight to de Gaulle that, once Hitler crossed the<br />

Rhine on March 7, 1935, had France built its own specialized corps, even in<br />

part, it would have been easy to deploy it immediately to the Rhine. Austria,<br />

Czechoslovakia, Poland would have been secured at the thought that France<br />

was willing to fight back. Belgium would have welcomed the French<br />

advance on their territory, and Hitler would have certainly been driven back,<br />

since he was still at the beginning <strong>of</strong> his rearmament effort and still in no<br />

condition to face a general conflict. De Gaulle wrote: "Such a check inflicted<br />

by France at this period, on this ground, could have had disastrous<br />

consequences for him (Hitler) in his own country. By such a gamble, he<br />

could have, at one go, lost everything. Instead, he won everything…There<br />

was no riposte to be expected from France. The Fuhrer was sure <strong>of</strong> this. The<br />

whole world took note <strong>of</strong> the fact. The Reich, instead <strong>of</strong> finding itself<br />

57

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