Daladier (May 1940)

Édouard Daladier

May 10, 1940

On January 29th I delivered my radio address to the people of France entitled – ‘Nazi’s Aim is Slavery’. I cannot emphasize any further how it is our duty to fight the Nazis. We will definitely not go down without a fight. I have been true to this stance from the very start… throughout the Munich negotiations in 1938, I was never agreeable with Chamberlain’s insistence of appeasement as a solution to preserve peace. If not for the post WW1 traumatic drain and the unenthusiastic attitudes of the French military and civilians towards fighting the Nazis instead of just giving in…I would have never allowed Chamberlain to have his way and would definitely have not signed the agreement. As much as I regretted signing the Munich Agreement the moment I signed it, I could not have possibly forgotten what France had went through in WW1. Indeed, most of the war was fought on our land and we had suffered immensely. I had to understand somehow that the French military and civilian were both weary and wary of yet another war.

My personal sentiments towards Hitler have been proven right after 2 years. He will stop at nothing. It is the duty of France to save liberty and human dignity from the madmen. Last year on the 6th of October, Hitler offered a France and Great Britain a peace proposal… I will not fall for it. I am fully aware of his true goal to dominate the world. His hunger for power is insatiable. I will not allow my failure to stop the Munich Agreement to stop me again. We will keep our arms up against aggression until peace is genuinely achieved once and for all. Although I am no longer the French Premier, I am confident of my strong base of support among the French. As Reynaud has decided to keep me in the cabinet as minister of war, I will do everything in my capacity to ensure that as France experiences war with Germany today, we will put in all we have- we must be forced to recover from our shock in WW1 so that we can save our nation today.

Today, France has been invaded by Germany. We must remain strong and fight until we achieve victory- and thereby, peace.