George Orwell, bless him, said he who owns the present owns the past. Of course the French want history rewritten. Their treachery and cowardice are a source of embarrassment, even to them. So depict the liberators at first as murdering rapists. Once that is established, a new myth becomes possible: Their help really wasn't necessary at all. The Resistance -- to which, of course, every Frenchman alive at the time belonged -- would have driven the Germans from France. Perhaps even sooner than the Yanks and Brits managed. Yes, definitely. Far sooner.
George Orwell, bless him, said he who owns the present owns the past. Of course the French want history rewritten. Their treachery and cowardice are a source of embarrassment, even to them. So depict the liberators at first as murdering rapists. Once that is established, a new myth becomes possible: Their help really wasn't necessary at all. The Resistance -- to which, of course, every Frenchman alive at the time belonged -- would have driven the Germans from France. Perhaps even sooner than the Yanks and Brits managed. Yes, definitely. Far sooner.