(5 of 5)
Petain intimates claim that in December 1940 Laval planned a coup d'etat which would have detained Petain in Versailles and shifted the Vichy Government to Paris. At any rate, Laval was arrested and imprisoned in his chateau at Chatel-don (the man who arrested him was Marcel Peyrouton, who last week resigned as Vichy's Ambassador to Argentina). Next day Otto Abetz, the German ruler of Occupied France, sped to Vichy in a huge Mercedes mounting two machine guns, demanded and got Laval's release. Then & there began the German pressuring for Laval's restoration which culminated last week.
Laval devotes much time to his toilet, but he is one of the untidiest political figures on earth. The cigaret drooping from his lip is always stained with spittle. His teeth grew that way. His hair insists on its greasy disarray. His expensive grey suits wrinkle fast over his fleshiness. He often changes his habitual white ties several times a day, but they invariably get smudged. He is a heavy, un-French eater and uses his fingers as a fork, his fork as a toothpick.
Despite his slovenliness, Pierre Laval has the personal magnetism often found in men of powerful and candid unscrupulousness. Many who hate him are also perversely fascinated by him. His brand of statesmanship puts no premium on culture, and he is a widely ignorant man, even of such subjects as geography. A close observer said of Laval's terms as Foreign Minister: "Questions of international relations, alliances to make or not to make, the attitude to be taken with the League of Nations or on sanctions were all solved by him in relation to the number of votes he would gain or lose in the Chamber."