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Looking back at extreme-right politics in France in the 1940s and 1950s provides new perspectives on contemporary populism. Stanley Hoffmann's analyses of support for the Vichy regime and for the Poujade movement emphasized how populist politics flourished in times when major segments of the population felt thwarted in efforts to have their interests and views represented in government. Attempts to explain populism by the economic or cultural characteristics of individuals are insufficient. As Hoffmann suggested, it is the political failure of parties and interest groups to channel the grievances and demands of the "losers" of globalization into policy arenas that fuels the rise of populism today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the French decision to send reinforcements to Indochina in April 1951 despite evidence of the futility of the Indochina War and pressing security needs in Europe. I analyze the motivation for this decision with the assistance of the minutes of the National Defense Committee, as well as the private papers of leading French politicians and military figures. I argue that the key to understanding the French decision to continue the war rather than seek peace was the belief that the war in Indochina was critical to the achievement of French goals in Europe and NATO. As a consequence of this analysis, I suggest that any celebration of France's European achievements must be tempered by the recognition that European policy was often closely linked with a regressive imperial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why was the French Communist Party (PCF) evicted in May 1947, only two years after it was asked to join the Socialists (SFIO) and the Christian Democrats (MRP) in a tripartite government? According to Pierre Grosser, the chief cause of the eviction was the pressure exerted by the United States on MRP and SFIO leaders, who distanced themselves from their Communist counterparts. While rejecting the thesis of an American-led conspiracy, Irwin Wall also underlines the role of MRP and SFIO politicians, whom he believed nourished strong anti-Communist feelings. The assumption is therefore that of a passive role for the PCF, the aspirations of which were limited to the seizure of power through democratic means. In contrast, this article argues that the Communists had a strategic interest in their own expulsion. Given what they perceived as a French alignment with the Western bloc at the Moscow Conference in April 1947, they began to weigh the advantages of a temporary eviction from government. They concluded that this would allow them to regain the support of the discontented working class and force the MRP and the SFIO to finally concede some of their demands. The hope was to stage their retour en force to the government at a later point. Their abstention in a vote on military appropriations for Indochina on 19 March 1947 brought them close to expulsion. However, it was not until their defiance of government wage policy that Paul Ramadier finally evicted them on 5 May 1947. In retrospect, contrary to the PCF’s original plan, its ‘temporary’ return to the opposition was to last more than 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over 98,000 American military personnel were stationed in France by the mid-1950s. Most studies of these US forces in France have taken an intercultural perspective, assessing how the two communities related to each other 'on the ground'. This article seeks to explore how American deployment was received and represented within the increasingly polarised context of French national politics. It examines the role played by the American military presence in the creation of Cold War narratives in France, in the very initial phases of US deployment (1950-52), with particular reference to cultural representations developed in these two years by the French Communist Party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the psychoprophylactic method (PPM) of childbirth pioneered by Soviet professor A. P. Nikolaev, its popularization in the West by French obstetrician Fernand Lamaze in the 1950s, and the role of Cold War politics in the reception of the new method in France. The breathing methods employed in PPM as an alternative to anesthetics in obstetric pain relief are discussed, as is the role of the French Communist Party in encouraging Soviet medical innovations, and the response from the anticommunist right.

Situated at the frontier of the 3rd, 10th and 11th arrondissements, the Place de la République is renowned as the location for the Morice brothers' statue to the Republic and as a site for left-wing demonstrations. The Morices' Marianne was slow to win the hearts of many left-wing politicians and workers. Upon occasion, the Place de la République became a battleground between demonstrators and police, but Marianne was not the subject of their contestation. The Place became a battleground simply because of its proximity to the Bourse du Travail. It was the threat of the right-wing leagues and the crisis of February, 1934 that prompted the left to take possession of the statue of the Republic. Socialists and Communists did not forget the legitimizing and mobilizing power inherent in the symbols of patriotic republicanism and evoked them again, most notably in leading the resistance to de Gaulle's return to power and his termination of the Fourth Republic in 1958. This was a high point in the struggle for possession of the symbols of republican legitimacy. Subsequently, despite some surprising revivals, the significance of the Place as a site for symbolic contestation has diminished, reflecting the general acceptance of the Fifth Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the decision by French poet Aimé Césaire to resign his membership in the French Communist Party, which he did on October, 23, 1956 in a letter to party leader Maurice Thorez. Friends of Césaire from the period are cited to support the contention that Césaire's resignation came after at least several years of increased alienation from the party. Examples are presented of occasions when Césaire, when still a party member, refused to follow the party's policies on cultural issues, particularly those relating to poetry. Césaire's belief that Communism did not account for the cultural effects of colonialism on native peoples is examined. Césaire's political career in his native Martinique, where he was a legislator and public officer, in the immediate aftermath of his resignation is discussed.

Communism was seen as a pervasive threat in postwar French politics, leading to the exclusion of the French Communist Party (PCF) from the French government and an outcry of protest at the activities of the French Communist trade union Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT). These fears were magnified throughout the French colonial empire, due to the war in French Indochina against the Vietminh and Soviet support of nationalist groups in several French colonies. The author examines French colonial responses to two nationalist parties suspected of having Soviet ties - the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) in French West Africa and the Rassemblement Démocratique des Populations Tahitiennes (RDPT) in French Polynesia. Though neither party was actually controlled by the USSR (or even Communists), French officials attempted to incorporate alleged Communist leaders in local government to diffuse the situation and preempt Soviet interference. The failure of the French to realize that these groups were actually indigenous liberation movements meant that nationalist leaders were inadvertently given the means, through greater political participation, to lawfully achieve their own independence goals.

The democratic government of France in the Algerian war engaged in torture and summary execution of enemy detainees. In so doing, it generated increased opposition at home and abroad. Torture may have helped the French win the battle of Algiers, but France lost the war for Algeria. French abuses of human rights in that war also cost the French dearly in terms of loss of self respect and reputation in the world. The Bush Administration, in fighting its "war on terrorism," runs the danger of repeating much of the French experience. It has intentionally abused many detainees in many places and has failed to ensure that this abuse is limited to persons truly presenting a dire threat to the security of US democracy. It has also tried to minimize authoritative review of its interrogation policies. Whether this broad policy of abuse can be sustained, and whether it can avoid the many negatives that the French experienced, merits careful analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the relationship between political antisemitism and events in postwar France. Effect of the loss of Algeria upon right-wing French politics; Historical perspective on French right's changing attitudes toward Jews and Israel.