As Ed Lasky has commented, the spirit of Vichy is alive and well in contemporary France, manifested currently in France's support for reducing pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program.  Lamentably, appeasement, collaboration, blaming others, and taking credit for the sacrifices of others have been manifested in France far too often. This is a country that still has not apologized for extensive collaboration with the Germans during World War ll, indeed  even honoring collaborators with high positions in its post war government.   The peaceful, natural death at age 96 of Maurice Paponthe highest-ranking Frenchman to be convicted for a role in the pro-Nazi Vichy regimeconsidered to be a "symbol of France's  collaboration with the Nazis" is another reminder of the Vichy smell.  In 1998, 63 years after the end of World War ll, after a long and respected career in the French government and...(Read Full Post)