Appeal of 18 June as the beginning of the Resistance and Free French, historians have shown that the appeal was heard only by a minority of French people. De Gaulle's 22 June 1940 speech on the BBC was more widely heard. General de Gaulle became the "de facto" leader of the Free French Forces that had escaped to London in June 1940. Marshal Philippe Pétain, a hero of World War I, pledged to sign an armistice with Nazi Germany, and led the collaborating Vichy government while the Germans occupied the country's northern portion and several leading politicians, including Georges Mandel, Leon Blum, Pierre Mendès
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong versions of the book in French, one published in Quebec in 2007 with the title "La Grande Aventure de la langue française". In 2011, Jean-Benoît Nadeau completely rewrote and adapted the original English version for a French edition published in Paris, "Le français, quelle histoire!" (Télémaque and Le Livre de Poche). In 2013, the couple also published "The Story of Spanish" (St. Martin's Press), which was inspired by "The Story of French". Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong (Sourcebooks, 2003) is the first book from the writer-journalist team Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau. The