In France half a century ago, as the Cold War loomed, Charles de Gaulle easily convinced the French that they were heroic during World War II because he was heroic. Francois Mitterrand, by contrast, managed to assure the French only that they were not so bad, because he, Mitterrand, had served in the collaborationist Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain before joining the resistance.
为被动以及主动的罪行担负责任已经受到了认可。谎言也已经被揭穿。半个世纪前的法国，冷战一触即发之际，戴高乐很轻易地让法国人相信他们是二战中的英雄，因为他自己便是英雄。而与之相反，弗朗索瓦·密特朗只告诉法国人他们并不坏，因为密特朗本人先是参加了维希政权Marshal Pétain的通敌卖国阴谋，而后又加入了抵抗力量。