Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohoender
Of course there is some level of conspiracy (in fact, secrecy) and, in France, we call that "raison d'état". In 1998, I was finishing my bachelor in modern history at the American University of Paris. We were prosecuting Papon (for his action during ww2) and Miterrand had just declared that the archives would be made available to the public. It was true but for 5% of them. As a good historian, my teacher asked for access to these 5% (after all, the French president had just said that free access will be given to them). On the next day, he received a call from the minister of interior affairs asking him not to try to go any further or he would be thrown out of the country.
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Tell me about it! I was researching Dien Bien Phu for a paper I was writing and filed a request to access the military archives. You would have thought that I had put on a ninja outfit and tried to paint the Effiel Tower red, white and blue! Hostile, threatening and uncooperative does not begin to describe the atitude!!!! So I cut my stay in France short and left for Germany.
Funny thing, I was able to get much easier access to the German military achives and got invaluable help from a trained staff of profesional historians. Never wrote that paper on DBP, but managed an even better one covering the German side of the fighting and surrender of elements of the 106th Infantry Division.
Still, I've always wondered why the atitude, especially since I was only requesting access to the combat logs of the various units involved in the fighting for the Hughette strongpoints...must have been the site of some kind of nuclear research facility......
