I am ever appalled by the pathetic response of France to the German invasion, again through Belgium. France had made a diplomatic decision NOT to fortify the French-Belgian border as that would demonstrate a lack of confidence in Belgium! And Clemenceau's intransigence on the reparations issue, designed to cripple Germany, predicted to fail by Keynes in 1919, used by France to justify the occupation of the Rhur in 1922, with the resulting inflation destroying the German middle class, paving the way for the rise of Hitler, and subsequently NOT followed by major investments in the French Army, especially armor and air are just confounding and painful to contemplate.

It was NOT that they could not afford it. The French had been sufficiently astute about going back on gold, they had slightly undervalued the Franc so that gold flowed into France and the '30s were relatively prosperous there. Then their situation led them to ship that gold to the USA for safekeeping.

The truth was that a significant portion of the French upper class was virulently antisemitic and, therefore, sympathetic to Hitler's Germany. Hence Vichy. With that national history there should be no surprise at the postwar emergence of French Existentialism.    

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."