The Psychology of the French Resister

Abstract

In any army the combatants need to be given reasons for fighting, although they have not been consulted before being involved in it; and it is even more necessary to enlist public opinion, without whose support the combatants would become as weak as Antaeus when his feet were off the ground. In all countries, in all the wars of history, it has been the role of propaganda though with varying weapons, targets, and methods to uphold the good fight with persuasive arguments, rational or emotional, and to devalue the enemy with other suitable arguments. It is sometimes possible in this way to create for the combatants a common mentality, half spontaneous and half imposed, which is a real and even a capital factor in their combativeness. But it is in clandestine Resistance that the combatant's morale is most important of all; indeed, it conditions his whole activity. The 'soldier in the shadows' has not received mobilization orders with