Page 152 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

The French Diplomats 139

France and Britain needed more time to rearm before entering into military
conflict. 103 the ambassador did not reckon on the likelihood that failure to
make a telling response to Hitler’s aggression would encourage the Führer
to conclude that the West would never respond forcefully to his violations
of international law.

why paris ignored its diplomats

it is difficult to evaluate the reporting of French diplomats in Germany
during the Nazi era, especially that of François-Poncet, by far the dominant
figure among his country’s emissaries in Berlin. His long service in the Ger-
man capital, his knowledge of German history and politics, and his fre-
quent meetings with Hitler gave him the reputation of a particularly acute
analyst of German affairs. always well informed on current events, he was
not shy about airing his opinions; often his judgments were trenchant, but
too often he seemed to forget what he had said previously. His inconsisten-
cies can be bewildering. He frequently described Hitler as unprincipled and
brutal, yet he also contended on one occasion that if the Führer claimed
to be a man of peace, he should be given the benefit of the doubt and be
believed. For much of his tenure in Berlin, the ambassador advocated ne-
gotiations with the regime to achieve an agreement on slowing the process
of rearmament, which Germany had initiated soon after the Nazis came to
power. He clung to this position despite the Führer’s numerous violations
of international agreements. Coulondre, the successor to François-Poncet,
did not deviate in any fundamental way from his views.
François-Poncet’s recommendations on policy disregarded the sage ad-
vice of the “old German diplomat,” or X, who had warned French officials
in late 1933 not to negotiate with the Nazi regime because it represented
a radically new political movement that was determined to implement its
program of territorial expansion and racism at all costs. Nevertheless, it
would be a mistake to suggest that the two French ambassadors considered
Hitler a “riddle” in the sense that sir Maurice Hankey, quoted in the intro-
duction, believed he might be after having attained power: a “new Hitler”
who wished to “extricate himself, like many an earlier tyrant, from the com-
mitment of his irresponsible days.” the French diplomats in Germany did
not see Hitler in that light. although many of their recommendations were
naïve and their prognostications of Hitler’s course of action inconsistent,
they did not think that he would change his colors completely. they repeat-