I’m fairly sure he meant France and Czarist Russia had a defense treaty before World War One and he was suggesting forming a new defense treaty between France and the Soviet Union, with the common thread being they were the powerful nations on either side of Germany.
I wouldn’t count on him knowing what he meant, but after my theory that he’s blaming French ‘right-wing senior leadership’ for failing to develop the requisite time-travel and dimension jumping technology, my best guess is that he’s making a reference to the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 1935 which was a dead letter from the get-go. Apart from the problems of the future German-Soviet non-aggression pact and plan to carve up Poland between themselves,
The Franco-Soviet Treaty’s military provisions were practically useless because of their multiple conditions, such as the requirement for Britain and Italy to approve any action. Their effectiveness was undermined even further by the French government’s insistent refusal to accept a military convention stipulating how both armies would co-ordinate their actions in the event of a war against Germany. The result was a symbolic pact of friendship and mutual assistance that had little consequence other than raising the prestige of both parties.
However, after 1936, the French lost interest, and all of Europe realised that the pact was a dead letter.
Again though, the OP offers absolutely zero evidence of his thesis that ‘right-wing senior leadership was incapable of that.’ I’d almost be interested in who exactly he imagines these right-wing senior leaders of France were between 1935 and 1940. Let’s see we have:
Pierre Laval - socialist early in life, PM in 1931 and again in 1935 when the Franco-Soviet treaty was signed
Albert Sarraut - PM for half a year in 1936, champion of labor strikes in his early political life
Léon Blum - socialist, in power from mid-1936 until mid-1937
Camille Chautemps - PM from mid-1937 until March 1938, “in January 1938, he formed a new government consisting solely of ministers from the nonsocialist republican centre- left.”
Léon Blum - still a socialist, again PM from March to April 1938
Édouard Daladier - PM from April 1938 until March 1940, French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician
So of these PMs who were ‘incapable’ of forming this illusionary strong alliance with the Soviet Union, which exactly represented this equally illusionary ‘right-wing senior leadership’?
Moderating:
Please remember, you can attack the post but not the poster. This is pretty much a personal attack. Please don’t do this again.
This is just a guidance, not a warning. Nothing on your permanent record.
I imagine a lot of French military officers and politicians were looking for excuses.
I had the impression that, much like their equipment, their view of warfare and the strategy and tactics that go with it was of WWI vintage. Some of them actually believed that the Maginot Line was still a viable strategic advantage.
It did what it was intended to do, prevent a direct advance across the Franco-German border.
It would have been better if it went across the Belgian border, but that would be like building a fortress on the USA Canadian border.
The French Commander (Maurice Gamelin) refused to have a telephone or any other electronic communications in his HQ when war broke out.
The main problem was the French were still fighting WW1 tactics with WW! weapons (‘Well, we won 20 years ago, didn’t we?’), while the Germans were forced to build a new military, basically from scratch, because of the provisions of the Versailles treaty. They were using no ‘legacy’ armaments, and no ‘legacy’ tactics either.
Yes and No. The French tanks and planes were on the whole better than the German equivalents - they were still using Panzer 1s ! It was the way they were deployed - or often not deployed - that rendered them moot.
The gear they built in the first wave of rearmament 1934/5 was utterly obsolete by 1940.
The objections to that were that the terrain is flat, with few commanding features, and the water table is high so underground works would need continuous pumping. Also it would have implied that Belgium was being abandoned to its fate - until the proclamation of Belgian neutrality the country still had a defensive alliance with France.
I thought the deal was that they could not extend the fortresses across the Belgian border. Neither, for some reason, could the French ask the Belgians to participate in building forts across the border with Germany.
The Belgians had their own fortress, which was taken pretty quickly.