To take power under such circumstance was not the work of an ambitious man, but of a great patriot. We can never be grateful enough to our Chief, who gave himself to France to save her. She is not yet saved. This is not the hour for sterile disputes or biting criticisms against the government. The hour is one for discipline and union.
Defeat always engenders unhappiness.
It is the French tradition to make the government responsible for the nation's misfortunes. We owe our present misery to a regime that led us to defeat, to that regime and not the government of the Marshal, which fell heir to the disastrous situation and is trying to remedy the ills from which you are suffering and to shorten their duration. To succeed needs courage, tenacity, abnegation and the support of the nation. If the nation does not understand this, it will perish. There are many who are trying to darken the nation's understanding.