Natalie Zemon Davis (1928-2023) A critical assessment and tribute

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Dr Natalie Zemon Davis
1928-2023

Dr Natalie Zemon Davis was a rare historian in that he combined a vigorous prose style of writing with a flair for elucidating the unexpected and the spectacular. Crafting a taut narrative while keeping her eyes close to the primary sources is a talent that only the best among historians possess and these days when Historians compete with the "Social Scientists" for writing bland turgid jargon ridden semi literate prose, the stylist in Dr Davis stands out stark and clear. Her death on the 21st of October came as a shock to her admirers all over the world and I count myself as one such.

Dr Natalie Davis was a Jewish American Historian and as such gravitated towards the "progressive" side of American politics. Unlike the radicals of today whose radicalism is expressed primarily in a radicalized aesthetic, Davis and her husband, Chandler, face the raw brutality of the American State during the McCarthy Era when a campaign to root out "communist"   subversives was pushed through with the same passion with which the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda is today being touted today. Davis and her husband who was a Professor of Mathematics were stripped of their passports and Chandler even spent six months in Prison for refusing to accept a subpoena and pleading the fifth. Certainly her politics was progressive. In 1959 she took her PhD for the University of Michigan and spent the rest of her life at Princeton University. Her Culture and Society in Early Modern France, Return of Martin Guerre, Fictions in the Archives and Trickster's Tales are important contributions.

Today the field of History has declined into a morass of post colonialism with the subjective and the unverifiable elevated as categories of understanding the past. Narrative and event oriented analysis of reality has given way to dense "thick descriptions" cast within a cultural/anthropological construct are seen as alternatives to the grounded histories that the Historical Method and its application creates. Memory, Culture, Society are the banners under which the New History associated with Carlo Ginsberg, Natalie Zemon, Ladurie and others marched. But these broad and almost undefinable concepts stretched Historiography almost to breaking point and in the cracks various kinds of splintered Histories sprouted based on identity, ideology and ideas. Dr Davis has not directly confronted these "post colonial" challenges.

Davis served as the President of the American Historical Association and her address History's Two Bodies remains a classic. Her death is a loss to the profession in the true sense.

Yaroslav Hunka and the "Nazi" Chimera: Can he be called a WAR Criminal

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Yaroslav Hunka is 98 years old, He is in extremely poor health. And frail. He was at the behest of the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament, Anthony Rota, given a standing ovation for having fought  for Ukrainian Independence against Russia. Of course this does imply working on behalf of the Germans. The Canadian Press and Politicians promptly started a campaign of self righteous indignation that threatens the stability of the Justin Trudeau regime. Let us look at the facts.

Canada has always been "permissive" as Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar pointed out recently in the context of the reluctance to repatriate serious offenders an criminals to face trial. Soon after World War II ended, Canada took in refugees from Europe and did not screen the immigrants for Nazi antecedents. At least 6000 Ukrainians were allowed entry along with a  considerable number of Germans. By 1948 the two Anglo Saxon powers, Britain and USA decided that USSR was a great threat and that there was no point in pursuing past enemies when one more loomed large. The Nuremberg Tribunal was abandoned and by 1950 even the prohibition, largely on paper, of keeping out Nazis was dropped from the category of those denied entry into Canada. After all, Nazis had a proven record of being anti communist.

It was against this background that Yaroslav Hunka entered Canada and his Nazi past was not discovered even though Professor John-Paul Himka has used his papers to document atrocities that were committed against Jews. Surprisingly the State of Israel has not made a public statement on the controversy nor has it demanded the extradition to Israel to face charges. This should give us reason to stop and pause and not be carried away in the cacophony emanating from Ottawa. 

The Government of Canada appointed the Deschenes Commission in 1985 to investigate the infiltration of Nazis into Canada and it specifically looked into the charges against the Waffen SS to which Yaroslav Hunka belonged and concluded that the Waffen SS did not commit WAR CRIMES. While they did participate in violence against Jews and Poles, the Commission clearly stated that war crime charges cannot be brought against those who were part of the Waffen SS. This division served in Galicia and was involved in ethnic cleansing the Poles who had settled in the region after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following World War I. White politicians, academics and media propagandists are sensitive to the anti Semite trope and hence the unwillingness to go into the details. As a non white I have no such blinkers.

I am not suggesting that Hunka was innocent and does not have blood on his hands. He certainly does but I am only clarifying the point whether he can be considered a war criminal as he is alleged even by George Galloway, whose opinions are usually grounded in research. 

There were groups that participated willingly in arresting and transporting Jews from Ukraine and these groups associated with the OUN, Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its armed wing, UPA, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army were deeply anti Semitic and their participation in the Holocaust is established. The case of John Demjanjuk makes this point clear.

There is no reason to join the collective chorus against Yaroslav Hunka. He is certainly an unsavory fellow  with a shady bood soaked past. But the Canadian Law has always been apathetic to criminals and that explains the presence of gangsters, drug lords, Mafioso, Nazis and internationally wanted terrorists in Canada. Right from World War II Canada has been permissive in its immigration policy.

Canada, India, Terrorism and Diplomatic fallout: Is there truth in Trudeau's Charge of Indian Involvement in Nijjar's Killing

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Hardeep Singh Nijjar 

  The killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Gurudwara in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada has led to a firestorm with charges flying fast and thick between India and Canada. Justin Trudeau, the Premier of Canada, accused India of orchestrating the killing and expelled the  R&AW Mission Chief in the Indian High Commission at Ottawa and India reciprocated. The first question we need to ask is on what basis did Trudeau make this charge. India is quite right in asking for evidence to back up the claim.

Nijjar's killing was preceded by the killing of Ripudaman Singh Mallik who had written a letter to the Prime Minister thanking him for removing the names of some Khalistani supporters from the list of proscribed individuals whose entry into India was illegal On July 14, 2023 the 75 year old Mallik was shot dead. Is there any link between the to killings. Nijjar whose son has claimed his father worked closely with the Canadian Intelligence, CSIS, is a suspect and therefore his murder is being linked to India as a case of revenge killing. It must be borne in mind that Ripudaman Singh was himself an accused in the bombing of Kanishka, the Air India flight from Vancouver which was  blown up near Cork on June 23, 1985 killing 329 passengers. Two more baggage  handlers were killed in Narita Airport Japan on the same day. 

Are Indian security agencies capable of carrying out strikes abroad. While there is no point in becoming sanctimonious and saying that Indian law and Constitution does not allow the Government such freedom, we should rather look at the conduct of agencies like R&W. They have not carried out strikes abroad as they are not trained to carry out such operations and their role is only that on intelligence gathering and monitoring. So far we have not heard of a single instance of the R&AW being involved in serious crime like murder. And certainly the Government of India cannot operate like Israel and the US in spite of open glee with which such covert operations are met with in India. So in spite of the vociferous public sympathy and support for covert activities, India lacks both the will and the capacity for sophisticated strikes in the heart of terrorism. At best the R&AW keeps track of the movements of terror suspects and if they step foot in India, the agencies at home are pressed into service and the only country where Indian covert operations are visible is Nepal. Canada is a white Anglo-Saxon majority and an ally of USA and India will not strike directly. Trudeau took up the Nijjar killing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his extended stay in New Delhi.

India has been warning about terrorists finding a safe haven in Canada even before the Kanishka bombing. Talwinder Singh Tomar, the founder of the terror module, Babbar Khalsa, who was later killed in a police encounter in India, was suspected to have been the master mind of the Kanishka Air India 182 bombing. Justin Tredeau senior who was then the Premier of Canada refused to extradite Parmar even though his hate rhetoric against India and a particular religious group had come to the notice of the Indian authorities. Since the bombing, R&AW has been monitoring hate groups like Sikhs for Justice, Babbar Khalsa, and the like and has collected a great deal of information. The reason why India is suspicious of sharing Intelligence with Canada  due to the fact that CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service which was aware of the activities of the Air India Bombers Ajai Singh Bagri and Reyat along with the conversations that Talwinder Singh Parmar had with these individual, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took no steps to either stop the bombing or seriously prosecute the accused. The CISIS used a legal loophole that it is not a Law Enforcement Agency to destroy 151 tapes containing the recorded wiretaps of the Air India bombers. Therefore India decided to step in and monitor hate groups focused on India. There is a sinsister motive underlying Canada's strident plea for Indian cooperation. India cannot afford a repeat of the Air India Kanishka fiasco and there is no guarantee that Information shared will not find its way into the hands of Sikh terrorists who may use the information to gut India's assets in Canada. 

The Sikh Panthic forces that animate terrorism against India are led by Pannu, a man who was in the news recently for threatening Canadians of Indian origin. In both USA and to a much greater extent Canada, there is tolerance extended to ethnic groups wedded to a political cause. The welfare state in Canada provides resources for poor immigrants from Punjab support themselves and there is a well established ecosystem of politicians, civil society groups, community institutions and leaders and of course, lawyers who use very lax immigration  laws and a narrative of political prosecution to give citizenship to people like Nijjar who are wanted in India for  heinous crimes like murder and extortion. Even Talwinder Singh Parmar who was protected from extradition by Trudeau senior was wanted in India for killing 2 policemen in 1981 in the Indian state of Punjab.

The Canadian Government and the complicity of its law enforcement agencies in protecting terrorists is brought out very clearly in Cold Terror by the Canadian journalist Stewart Bell. Trudeau is unable to deal with terror sympathizers in his own land as the survival of the Canadian regime is dependent on the support of the Jagmeet Singh controlled National Liberal Party. Jagmeet Singh is not a terrorist and is a Lawyer who has worked for Sikh refugees in Canada, However Sikh identity politics makes it difficult for anyone to separate a terrorist from a bigger groups. India needs to keep track of Sikh Terrorists i Canada in order to protect our country since Canada is clearly incapable of doing so.

India has now come down heavily on Khalistani elements in India by setting the NIA to identify their property and confiscating them. The Overseas Citizens of India card of those in touch with Khalistani elements and who have participated in demonstrations against India will be cancelled. 

India's Techade: Nalin Mehta looks at the Digital Revolution in India

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

India's Techade: Digital Revolution and Change in the World's Largest Democracy

Nalin Mehta

Westland, 2023

Nalin Mehta is a well known academic and political observer and is the author of the well regarded massive tome on the New BJP. This book demolished the Christopher Jafferlot and his acolytes who see in the rise of the BJP something that only the deluded overeducated white men can see, a "fascist" "high caste" "Hindu Nationalist" political organization. Of course this narrative is promoted by those fed and battened in the stables of George Soros and his merry men.  Nalin Mehta has decisively shown that the electoral base of the BJP is OBC and SC, ST identity groups. The present book is obviously timed to set the narrative for the 2024 General Elections.

Nalin Mehta has drawn extensively from open source Government data to show that the Digital Revolution initiated by the UPA and further extended and elaborated by the Narendra Modi Government has transformed the face of Indian society and therefore politics. The UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION based on the Aadhar scheme has given a unique digital identity to the citizens which in turn has created the foundation for inclusive banking and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). This digital marker coupled with GIS enabled data tracking and mapping has cut administrative costs and has reduced corruption, the bane of Indian public administration so far. 

Several of the socially and economically transformative schemes of the Modi Government are driven by the digital infrastructure that has been erected. The Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is is now global and is competing with established platforms like Visa and Master Card. Demonetization was aimed at eradicating Black Money that had assumed alarming proportions to the tune of nearly 60% of the Gross Domestic Product and terror funding was taking place through the hoarded black economy. Narendra Modi decided to attack both and the master stroke was the sudden demonetization of high value notes. Of course, the those affected by the sudden  move were critical and the Congress Party exposed itself when it came out against what their presiding deity, Rahul Gandhi called a "jumla". The introduction of digital modes of finance has certainly helped create a better environment for business and investment. FinTech the backbone of Digital Finance infrastructure  in India is also creating interest  in parts of Asia and Africa. 

The months of COVID lockdown saw the economy of India collapse and Indiam journalists taking money from  white propaganda 

outlets like New York Times and Washington Post went to town defaming India and its efforts to fight the Chinese created pandemic. One female reporter even used drone footage of burning pyres to earn money from the white propaganda houses. However, Digital India framework provided a reliable means of tracking the clusters of disease and helped to track down contacts. The result was that India had a reliable and efficient system of monitoring the pandemic. The ease with which the COVID vaccinations were administered and the digital authentication in the form of an e-certificate was a marvel of ingenuity, 

Parts of the book  read, unfortunately, like an election manifesto. And that is truly an important aspect as the Digital Revolution has muted the identity politics that drive Indian elections. The class of Labharathis or beneficiaries of the various schemes rolled out by the Government of India under Shri Narendra Modi will propel the BJP towards a 352 to 358 seats in the Lok Sabha. Unfortunately for the Opposition the OBC and SC ST vote banks are now solidly in the BJP bailiwick. 

I enjoyed reading this book. Though I would have brought in the political dimensions of the Digital Revolution more clearly as that was the real intent behind all these ground breaking innovations.

Peter Brown's Journey of the Mind: Autobiography and Historiography. conjoined twins

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Peter Brown

  Peter Brown the well known and     celebrated Historian has just published   his autobiography, Journeys of the   Mind, in which he traces his     intellectual development from an   undergraduate student in Oxford to his   present status as the preeminent historian of Late Antiquity. He arranges his life, as does his alter ego, Edward Gibbon, as though there is a pattern and inevitability to his life and career. His choice of "special subjects" his acquisition of reading ability in foreign languages, the fortuitous presence of teachers and a father who supported all his decisions, morally and financially conspired to charm him along the yellow brick road to academic eminence. 

Cover Journeys

 Born in 1935 to an Irish Protestant family,   Brown never tires of drawing attention to the   discrimination he faced at the hands of the   English. He belonged to a family that   prospered in the colonies as an engineer in   the Sudan Railway. Brown lived his early   years in the Empire and in  his youth saw   the   Empire fade into History. The famines   faced by the Irish epitomised the callousness   of the the English regime and Sir Charles   Trevelyan (1807-1888) presided over the   death of nearly a million people, as the Famine  Relief Authority of Ireland. The collapse of the idea of progress in the historical profession meant the Historians were open to other ideas and in the case of Brown a brave new world of "social science" was opened up as he explored the Roman past with insight from Evan-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, and a French anthropologist whose insight helped Brown as he struggled with the controversies of the Donatist Church in North Africa'

Peter Brown devoted his professional life to the cusp between the end of the Roman Empire and the advent of Islam and its triumph in the Middle East and Africa. And in this he was following the footsteps of Edward Gibbon, who wrote two hundred years earlier on the same theme. Rather than see the Late Empire as an age of decline and decadence, Brown views the period as one of change and transformation characterized by new social classes and new sources of wealth. The newer social classes found Christianity attractive and flocked to the new religion. He does not really address the question of the Great Persecution and the relentless thirst for martyrdom displayed by the early Christians. The Eastern Churches were flourishing until the rise of Islam put an end to the Donatist, Nestorian and Chaldean churches in Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. 

The questions raised by Brown are important and there is need to reflect on the stupendous success of the Easter Churches in keeping Christianity alive in the Middle East. Islam did not arise in a vacant desolate land land of jaliliya, as early Moslem historians like to portray the pre Islamic past. His work is of interest to scholars working in the history of the Near East, Mediterranean region and  the Balkans. The intellectual influences on Brown are many but two Historians are important in shaping his understanding of the past: Mikhail Rostovtzeff (1870-1952) and Arnaldo Momigliano, his long suffering doctoral guide. Brown spent his time writing his famous biography of Augustine of Hippo that he did not complete his dissertation. It was a different world then. A successful academic life could still be launched without the doctorate. The only other case I remember is Eugen Weber, the great historian of the Third Republic. 

At some point Peter Brown decided to move to USA where he felt he had better prospects. 

Peter Brown is a prolific writer and his output is impressive and so too is his command over languages: Latin, Greek, German, Hebrew, French and a few more, However, his use of functionalist models fir explaining important social changes in the Roman Empire lead me to wonder if historical change is being misinterpreted as functionalism invariably see static social behaviour. Therefore the appearance of the holy man, a sure sign of social change is interpreted from the standpoint of functionalism, which imposes a rationality to what is in reality a sign or symptom of change in society.

I enjoyed this book and having heard AJP Taylor's autobiography and also E J Hobsbawm's Interesting Times, the Journeys of the Mind is an solid addition to the growing number of autobiographies penned by Historians.

Madras in an Eighteenth Century Poem: Temples, Patrons and Urban landscape as seen in Sarva-deva-vilasa

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Several decades back Dr V Raghavan published the Sarva-deva-Vilasa in the Adyar Library Series. This Champu, written in both prose and poetry, does not rank high for its literary merits as it is replete with violations of the rule of Sandhi, intersperses Sanskrit with Tamil and Telugu colloquialisms, and there are grammatical bloopers as well. However, it provides us a glimpse of the City of Madras as it fell under the growing influence of the s'veta mukha palita, the white faced as this poem rather inelegantly calls the English. 

The author is as yet unknown but the two protagonists are referred to as Vivekin and Ativivekin, intelligent and more intelligent, respectively. Both are in search of new patrons for their craft, the kathakalakshepa, religious and ethical discourse. And as astute observers of the social and economic changes in the City, they latch on to three or four men, all of whom were connected in some form or other with the East India Company and its trading activities. Some of the men appear in Historical Records put together by Love and so we can date the poem circa late 18th century as the Mayor's Court was established in 1753 and one of the personages mentioned was a Kanakkappa,  the dubash ( Interpreter) to the Court. Kalingaraya, Srirangaraya, and Vedachala were the prime patrons and the poems revolves around them and the social network in which they lives circled. These three men belonged to the socially dominant community that arose to prominence in the late Vijayanagara period: the Tondaimandala Vellalas. 

The poem provides a list of temples in and around the city of Madras,and even Ramalinga Swamiar, called it, "dharma migu Cennai". Vaisnava and Saiva temples received patronage from these upcoming magnates who sought opportunities for social and economic advancement by collaborating with the East India Company and its traders. Textile trade, pearl and diamond trade, beetle leaf monopoly, money lending were all part of the portfolio of interests that this new group commanded in Madras, Pulicat, Pondicherry and Nagapattinam. As agents controlling the textile trade at both the production and distribution points, these men became immensely wealthy and replaced the kings and chieftains who had patronised literature and art earlier. In fact all three patrons mentioned in the poem were dharmakarttas, temple controllers    

Perumal Temple Tirunirmalai

The temple at Tirunirmalai is a divyadesam and the poem describes the palace as Toyadri thereby indicating its high status among Vaishnava holy places .Our poets visited this temple along with Vedachala and in the evening there was organized a sadas in which

  music and dance were exhibited. The poets were gratified to receive gifts from their patron.

 The Krishna Temple in Coral Merchants Street was an important place of worship in the 18th century.  Along with the Chenna Keshava Perumal Temple, this temple too was built towards the middle of the 18th century, after the "native" population had been evicted from the Fort. 

Agastesvara Temple

Nungambakkam, looked far different in the 18th century than now.  The Long Tank which stretched from Mylapore to Tennampet and spread into Nungambakkam, gave the names by which these parts are known today: Spur Tank Road.  The Agastyeesvara Temple was an important shrine and our poets visited it and they refer to the Big Lake along side this temple. The Long Tank was drained in the last quarter of the 19th century and the vestiges of the Long Tank disappeared when Karunanidhi decided to build the Valluvar Kottam.

Vasavi Kanyaka Perumal Temple 
Kotwal Chavadi Black Town

The Vasavi Kanyaka Temple was one of the most important  shrines associated with the Beri Chetti Community of South India. A detailed description of this temple is given in the poem and before Kotwal Chavadi yeilded its importance to Koyembedu, this was a thriving commercial centre.  In all the sites visited, the poets participated in the religious festivities which often culminated in all night Katha Kalekshepa 

The Sarva deva Vilasa offers us a unique glimpse into the social and cultural life of the indigenous population in the cusp of colonial rule. There are references to the influence of Military Band music on Carnatic Music, the early use of violin, a western instrument, in the emerging repertoire of Classical compositions, and we find adequate enough information about the landmarks of Old Madras. 

Pierre Laval:: Patriot, Traitor or Collaborator Laval needs to be reviewed critically

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Pierre Laval 

    Pierre Laval (1883- 1945) was Prime        Minister of France three thrice, served       as a   Minister of the Third Republic        13   times and   was Foreign Minister         and President of the   Council. A socialist   by conviction and a   French patriot, by   choice he became the   victim of Charles   de Gaulle's politics and   his  execution in   1945 after a trial that even   Stalin would   have found embarrassing,: a   grotesque   

Kafkaesque political drama in   which Laval was denied a fair trial without   witnesses, documents or evidence. And his meeting with Hitler as Prime Minister and with Mussolini earlier held up as evidence of treason, collaboration and therefore guilty.

The great Athenian Historian, Thucydides wrote with great insight, nearly two thousand five hundred years back, "to fit in  with the change of events, words too  had to change their usual meaning." Ideology and political expediency demanded a new Hero and a new Church and the hero and the church required a sacrifice in blood and that was paid by Laval. On the night preceding his execution he tried to kill himself and it was decided to shoot him on a stretcher, if he  could not walk. De Gaulle claimed that his "Fighting France" had "liberated" France from the Germans. The truth is that he was allowed to march a small contingent of 500 men at the head of the Anglo American column and thus the keystone of the Gaullist ideology rests on a piece of contrived propaganda. Gaulle did not liberate France and neither was Pierre Laval a collaborator or a traitor. De Gaulle with the help of the Communists and elements of the French Right whipped up a cloud of passion which cast deep doubts on the motives and actions of Pierre Laval. Unfortunately, the Gaullist State institutionalised the self serving ideologically potent myth and like marionettes Historians are dancing ever since to this absurdity. In fact anyone even suggesting a more nuanced and balanced opinion or assessment is usually hollered down by the rabid defenders of de Gaulle. 

Few Historians recognise today that Pierre Laval was the first European statesman to understand the danger posed by Hitler. After  becoming Prime Minister in 1931 he sought to bring Social Insurance and succeeded and to this day his scheme lasts. In 1935 as Prime Minister he met Mussolini in Rome and convinced him to accept the responsibility of defending Austria and when the Germans assassinated the Austrian Chancellor, Dollfuss, it was Italy that forced Germany and Hitler to back off from outright annexation. Recognizing the danger posed by Germany and responding to that danger by creating an international coalition with Italy and Britain fell through as Britain was going through it "appeasement" phase and when Britain accepted the remilitarization of the Rhineland without a whisper of protest, Laval realised that in any confrontation France would be left high and dry. The same fear took him to Moscow, but Stalin too was in no mood to confront Germany. Given this track record of diplomacy against Hitler's Germany, Laval can be termed a "fascist" and "collaborator" only by those who use History  as a tool of political legitimation. Samuel Hoare the Foreign Minister of Britain signed an agreement with Laval but it created a storm in Britain which did not quite see Germany as an existential threat to civilization, and Laval clearly did. When Laval's policy of containment fell through, he became more prudent. 

In 1940 when Germany invaded France and concluded an  Armistice which was hugely popular, Laval had no role in this at all as he became Prime Minister under Marshall  Phillipe Pe'tain after the Armistice. Does this transfer of power which took place with  the concurrence of the National Assembly constitute treason. The charge of treason cannot be made unless we take into consideration the fact that the Armed Forces, Police and territory were firmly controlled by the existing Government. I hesitate to use the very word Vichy as it carries the stain of Gaullist invective. De Gaulle went to France where he was permitted to claim that he represented "Free France", the Cross of Loraine that Sir Winston Churchill and the Allies carried reluctantly. Pierre Laval was dismissed in 1940 and for the next two years he remained out of office. He was recalled in 1942 and held office until 1944. Only the retrospective judgement marinated in expediency and political need can lead to the imposition of the construct of Traitor and Collaborator on Laval.

Pierre Laval kept French institutions clear of German influence and all the judges on the hastily constituted a High Court of Justice including the chief, Paul Mongibeaux were all servants of the Vichy Government and they did not see the irony of sitting in judgement on a man who was its head. The fact is de Gaulle wanted Pierre Laval punished and executed so that he could build his political future on dead Laval. The jury consisted by Socialists who were politically opposed to Vichy and a death sentence was handed down and on 15th October 1945 Laval faced a firing squad. The trial and sentence were timed so that before the Elections in 1945, de Gaulle could appear before the French as the Grand H'omme the saviour of "Eternal France" and refurbish its image as a Great Power. And the removal of Laval did accomplish all this. France's defeat and neutrality (not collaboration) could be wiped clean and the Gallic Coq was free to strut its stuff on the world's stage. 

The most egregious charge against Pierre Laval was with regard to the French Navy anchored in North Africa. The British planes bombed the ships destroying the ships killing 1300 sailors on board, an attack similar to the Pearl Harbour Attack by Japan. Even this provocation did not lead to France declaring war against England and thereby proving the neutrality of Vichy. How could this incident be brought as evidence of a hostile attitude towards France. Political necessity had created a climate in which honest assessment of Laval's role was neither made nor attempted. And de Gaulle was waiting in the wings to erect his political future on the corpse of Pierre Laval.

An assessment of Pierre Laval must consider the circumstances of his regime and with the exception of Rousso few Historians have taken those under consideration. Pierre Laval preserved France as State and Country in the face of huge challenges. Nazification of French public institutions was resisted almost till the bitter end. German demands for labour was met but with reluctance and Jewish persecution was resisted till the end of 1943 when it became impossible for France to fight Germany.

An assessment of Pierre Laval must consider all  these facts.