In a tiny, jampacked chamber of Algiers' Palais de Justice, ex-Vichyite Pierre Pucheu fought for life and honor. He was on trial for treason against France, the first high Vichyite brought to bar for trafficking with Germany. But the courtroom mirrored more than one man's struggle. All week long, before a military tribunal headed by Judge Léon Verin, impassioned Frenchmen of the Left, Center and Right denounced and defended Vichy's tangled, tortuous policy of collaboration.
Tall Pierre Pucheu had made many an enemy in his career as steel cartelist, Fascist fellow traveler and Vichy...
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