The Sorrow and the Pity (1969)

Anthony Eden: Self, Winston Churchill's foreign Secretary 1940-1945

Quotes 

• Sir Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary : There are two things we still haven't fully understood today concerning the position of de Gaulle and the Free French. In England at that time, there were several foreign governments, but they were all governments, whereas de Gaulle and the Free French were not. All the other powers here in London had come with their government. The Dutch, the Belgians, the Norwegians. Their government in London was the same as the one at home. But this wasn't the case in France, as Pétain was still in power.

  Interviewer : Is that not the worst accusation of Pétain and the Vichy administration that one could possibly make? After all, France is the only country guilty of this.

  Sir Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary : Yes. Yes, that's true.

• Sir Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary : I was a young soldier in World War I, and for me, Pétain was the hero of Verdun. But his character had changed with age. That's to be expected. I'm sure he was opposed to the idea of your cities being destroyed, because he spoke of it at dinner, saying, "It's awful seeing our lovely cities destroyed." And I had to answer, "Yes, I understand. It's hard for an Englishman to say this, but there are worse things than the destruction of cities." But I don't think he was convinced.

• Sir Anthony Eden, Churchill's Foreign Secretary : If one hasn't been through, and our people mercifully did not go through, the horror of an occupation, by a foreign power, you have no right to pronounce upon what a country does which has been through it all. It is not my place to judge whether or not people's anger was justified. We haven't been though it, so we cannot say.