Some thoughts on the fall of France. I just re-read Alistair Horne's To Lose a Battle, which is the last of his trilogy about the Franco-German wars (the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, World War I and World War II). The Germans launched their offensive on May 10, 1940. On June 21, the French signed a humiliating armistice that resulted in the outright occupation of half their country and the creation of a puppet regime called Vichy France. It is a story not just of military incompetence on the part of the French generals, but of the moral and psychological defeat of a people who did not have sufficient will to resist their attackers. It still stands, I think, as a cautionary tale.

Michael Barone says the concept of small government is selling well across the country.

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