Paul Baudouin

Paul Baudouin was born into a wealthy family in Paris, and served as an artillery officer during The Great War in the French Army.

He had also been a Catholic Scout leader in the years just prior to World War II, and had written a notable exhortation to young Christians for the Revue de jeunes.

He called for "the renaissance, in the humbler form of a layman's Order, of the chivalry of old times" to defend the spiritual patrimony of the Christian West.

One of those civilian members appointed to the new Cabinet was Paul Baudouin, a known opponent of France's declaration of war against Germany, as Under-Secretary of State to the Prime Minister[6][7] Soon, this young technocrat, attentive to the rising generation, would be the centre of a Catholic/Action Française cohort set on re-educating French young people, inspired by a host of new programs of Pétain's later Cabinet and entourage, drawing upon his Catholic scout or Revue des jeunes contacts.

[10] The military situation now drastically deteriorated: on 5 June, Dunkirk fell, and Reynaud again reshuffled his Cabinet, sacking Daladier, and giving Paul Baudouin another appointment as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

[13] On 11 June, Churchill flew to the Chateau du Muguet, at Briare, near Orléans, where he put forward first his idea of a Breton redoubt, to which Weygand replied that it was "just a fantasy".

On the morning of 19 June José Félix de Lequerica y Erquiza, the Spanish Foreign Minister, reported to Baudouin that the Germans were prepared to talk.

On 30 June Pierre Laval suggested to Pétain, Baudouin and Raphael Alibert that the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies should be called together in joint session to consider new constitutional changes.

In addition there was an inner circle (Laval, Baudouin, Yves Bouthillier, Admiral Jean Darlan, and General Weygand) which met every day.

It was, following the armistice, both a pragmatic way to unify French young people and a reflection of the romantic, anti-liberal, anti-modern mentality of many pre-war Catholic intellectuals.

[21] Intrigues followed, and by mid-November Baudouin, Yves Bouthillier, Marcel Peyrouton, (Minister of the Interior), Raphael Alibert, Admiral Darlan and General Huntziger were putting pressure upon Pétain to have Laval dismissed from office.