Editing Philippe Pétain (section)

===Vocal critic of defence policy===
In 1924 the National Assembly was elected on a platform of reducing the length of national service to one year, to which Pétain was almost violently opposed. In January 1926, the Chief of Staff, General Debeney, proposed to the ''Conseil'' a "totally new kind of army. Only 20 infantry divisions would be maintained on a standing basis". Reserves could be called up when needed. The ''Conseil'' had no option in the straitened circumstances but to agree. Pétain disapproved of the whole thing, pointing out that North Africa still had to be defended and in itself required a substantial standing army. But he recognised, after the new Army Organisation Law of 1927, that the tide was flowing against him. He would not forget that the Radical leader, [[Édouard Daladier]], even voted against the whole package, on the grounds that the Army was still too large.<ref>Williams, 2005, p. 244.</ref>

On 5 December 1925, after the [[Locarno Treaty]], the ''Conseil'' demanded immediate action on a line of fortifications along the eastern frontier to counter the already proposed decline in manpower. A new commission for this purpose was established, under [[Joseph Joffre]], and called for reports. In July 1927 Pétain himself went to reconnoitre the whole area. He returned with a revised plan and the commission then proposed two fortified regions. The [[Maginot Line]], as it came to be called, (named after [[André Maginot]] the former Minister of War) thereafter occupied a good deal of Pétain's attention during 1928, when he also travelled extensively, visiting military installations up and down the country.<ref>Williams, 2005, p. 247.</ref> Pétain had based his strong support for the Maginot Line on his own experience of the role played by the forts during the Battle of Verdun in 1916.

Captain Charles de Gaulle continued to be a protégé of Pétain throughout these years. He even allegedly named his [[Philippe de Gaulle|eldest son]] after the Marshal, although it is more likely that he named his son after his family ancestor Jean Baptiste Philippe de Gaulle,<ref>A Certain idea of France The life of Charles de Gaulle, Julian Jackson, p. 58.</ref> before finally falling out over the authorship of a book he had said he had ghost-written for Pétain.