Summary Part of France at War week on WW2TV Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked US leaders rushed to back the Vichy government--a fateful decision that nearly destroyed the Anglo-American alliance. According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the "most shocking single event" of the war was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of France in spring 1940. Michael Neiberg will explain the dramatic history of this American response - a policy marked by panic and moral ineptitude, which placed the United States in league with fascism and nearly ruined the alliance with Britain. Michael Neiberg is the Chair of War Studies at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he teaches history, strategy, and regional studies.

• War
• Documentary
• History
• Talk Show