Histoire militaire de la France : De 1940 à nos jours

This last volume of the series Histoire militaire de la France is divided into three parts: the stakes of the Second World War, the contradictions of the Fourth Republic, and the discourse of defense. From 1940 to 1945, France, defeated and torn apart, regained its place in the victorious coalition of free nations. From 1945 to 1962, conflicts of different nature and magnitude delayed (and obscured) the ongoing renovation of the military apparatus, which was solicited by the contradictory demands of the wars of decolonization and the Cold War. From 1958 to 1989, the Fifth Republic designed and built a defense system capable of external intervention, air-land battle, and nuclear deterrence. Is it still adapted to the situation created by the collapse of Soviet power? Three periods, but always the same desire to forge a tool capable of ensuring France's independence and its rank as a world power.