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早年
贝当是一个天主教农民之子,在1876年加入法国陆军。
第一次世界大战
贝当在一次大战期间成为法国英雄,被称为“凡尔登的救星”。在1914年开战时,贝当是一个正待退休的上校,战争开始后被升为旅长,后升为师长,在10月任第二军军长,1915年7月升为第二军团司令,在1916年的凡尔登战役中指挥当地法军击退德军进攻。1917年贝当升为法国陆军总司令,1918年11月升任法国元帅。
两次大战间
贝当在1929年福煦元帅逝世后,继其位出任法兰西学院院士。1934年时曾进入内阁,任国防部长一职。
第二次世界大战及维希法国
1940年6月,贝当在德军向法国内陆大举推进之际就任法国总理,在6月22日与德国签订停火协定。根据该协定,法国的大部份地区被德军占领,只有南部及东南部一带例外。随后法国国会通过议案,授予贝当宪法、立法、行政及司法权力,并暂停宪法,令贝当拥有独裁者的权力。贝当政府总部设在法国中部非占领区的维希,故被称“维希政府”。维希政府为轴心国提供大量物资,又曾下令在海外属地的法军对抗盟军,以及容许轴心军在海外属地过境。1942年11月11日,德军突然占领法国余下的非占领区。1944年盟军登陆法国后,维希政府在9月迁至德国境内。
战后审判
1945年4月,贝当回到法国接受叛国罪审讯,其后被定罪及判处死刑。贝当在8月获戴高乐以年老为理由减刑至终身监禁,在1951年去世。
Because of his outstanding military leadership in World War I, particularly during the Battle of Verdun, he was viewed as a hero in France. However, during the 1920s and 1930s, while remaining the highest ranking military authority, he failed to modernize the French military except for the ineffective Maginot Line. After the French defeat in June 1940, Pétain was legally voted in as Head of State (Chef de l'Etat) by the French Parliament. However, Pétain surrendered France to Germany and, along with his cabinet, including later on Pierre Laval, transformed the French Republic into the French State, an authoritarian (not totalitarian) dictatorship administered from the town of Vichy in central France. As the war progressed, the Vichy Government sank deeper into collaboration with the German occupiers which finally took control of the totality of metropolitan France. Petain's actions during World War II resulted in a conviction and death sentence for treason, which was commuted to life imprisonment by Charles de Gaulle. In modern France he is remembered as an ambiguous figure while pétainisme is a derogatory term for certain reactionary policies.