Petain’s personality was unique among the man at his time and lead him to his final defeat. Petain was born in the period of the Second French empire, founded by Napoleon. Because of his experience during childhood, he was found of establishing a government that holds complete control over the country and its people, rather than pushing forward democratic reforms. Another important characteristic in Petain’s personality is that he is incredibly conservative. After the First World War, Petain believed that he had found the key to military victory. He believed that the only way to ensure victory in any war is to construct coherent lines of defense. To wear the enemies down with machine guns and cannons, and to decrease the loss of man. However, he failed to realize the fact that with technological advancements, the strategies of war would also change. Petain did not recognize the importance of new inventions, for example, planes and armored vehicles. For example, in a military report in 1930, Petain wrote only one sentence concerning the usage of airplanes in war: planes spy on the enemy during the day and bomb them during the night. In addition, Petain laughed at the idea that the armored vehicles can cause sufficient damage to the enemy man. He thought that the French can easily defeat the Germans by constructing defense lines. The result of this false belief is the Maginot line, but that is for later.

Also, Petain’s behavior during the First World War isn’t exactly perfect. Perhaps because of his experience during childhood, Petain was extremely pessimistic. If the situation turned too severe or he undergoes too much stress, his attitude towards the situation would collapse. During the battle of Verdun, he tried to make his man retreat because he believed that the Germans are surely going to be the victorious one. However, Foch saved the day by ordering Petain to stay at his post no matter what. Even at the final stage of World War One, where Ludenhorff tried to save the German Empire with plan Kaiserschlacht, Petain believed that the alliance would crumble, and had already tried to convince his superiors to surrender and make peace. His attitude and personality were a perfect match with Foch’s, who was addicted to brutal attacks and was known throughout France for his courage in battles. However, Foch died before the Second World War and he was not there to work with Petain, we can say at this point that Petain was left to run wild，and Petain was definitely not the kind of people who would be willing to separate his work with his personality. Therefore, it would not be of any surprise to see a gloomy and old-fashioned looking general, commanding an army with old war-tactics and outdated weapons. While Hitler was accumulating Germany’s power as a large military nation, with high-tech and cutting-edge tactics and technology, like tanks and airplanes; therefore, it would be of no doubt that Germany has obtained a large advantage over France and Petain was going to lose. However, nobody expected France to lose so quickly and Petain to ally with the Germany invaders, but that is a story for another day.