World War II political leaders

René Jean Pleven (French pronunciation: [ʁəne pləvɛ̃]; 15 April 1901 – 13 January 1993) was a notable French politician of the Fourth Republic. A member of the Free French, he helped found the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR), a political party that was meant to be a successor to the wartime Resistance movement. He served as prime minister twice in the early 1950s, where his most notable contribution was the introduction of the Pleven Plan, which called for a European Defence Community between France, Italy, West Germany, and the Benelux countries.

Henri Philippe Bénoni Omer Joseph Pétain (24 April 1856 – 23 July 1951), commonly known as Philippe Pétain (, French: [filip petɛ̃]) or Marshal Pétain (French: Maréchal Pétain), was a general who commanded the French Army in World War I and became the head of the collaborationist regime of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944, during World War II.
Pétain was admitted to the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1873 and pursued a career in the military, achieving the rank of colonel by the outbreak of World War I. He led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun" (French: le lion de Verdun). After the failed Nivelle Offensive and subsequent mutinies, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief and succeeded in restoring control. Pétain remained in command for the rest of the war and emerged as a national hero. During the interwar period he was head of the peacetime French Army, commanded joint Franco-Spanish operations during the Rif War and served twice as a government minister. During this time he was known as le vieux Maréchal ("the Old Marshal").
On 17 June 1940, with the imminent Fall of France and the government desire for an armistice, Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Albert Lebrun that he appoint Pétain in his place, which he did that day, while the government was at Bordeaux. The government then resolved to sign armistice agreements with Germany and Italy. The entire government subsequently moved briefly to Clermont-Ferrand, then to the town of Vichy in central France. It voted to transform the French Third Republic into the French State, better known as Vichy France, an authoritarian puppet regime that was allowed to govern the southeast of France and which collaborated with the Axis powers. After Germany and Italy occupied all of France in November 1942, Pétain's government worked closely with the Nazi German military administration.
After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted for treason. He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison. His journey from military obscurity, to hero of France during World War I, to collaborationist ruler during World War II, led his successor Charles de Gaulle to declare that Pétain's life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre".
Pétain, who was 84 years old when he became Prime Minister and later Chief of State, remains both the oldest person to become the head of government and the oldest person to become the head of state of France.

Pierre Dupong (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ dypɔ̃]; 1 November 1885 – 23 December 1953) was a Luxembourgish politician and statesman. He was the 16th prime minister of Luxembourg, serving for sixteen years, from 5 November 1937 until his death, on 23 December 1953, and was also responsible at different times for the ministries of finance, the army, agriculture, labour and social matters. He founded the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) as the main conservative party after the Second World War, having been a founding member of the Party of the Right (PD) in 1914.
He was one of the founding members in 1914 of the Party of the Right, and was elected to the legislature in 1915. He served as Director-General for Finance from 1926 to 1937 and as Minister for Social Security and Labor in 1936 and 1937.
His first government was the Dupong-Krier Ministry (1937–1940). Between 1940 and 1944, Dupong then led the Luxembourgish government-in-exile, after Luxembourg had been occupied by Nazi Germany. He fled the country along with the rest of the Luxembourg government and the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg, settling in France. Once in Bordeaux, they were granted transit visas from the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in June 1940. Pierre Dupong, along with his wife Sophie, and their children Marie Thérèse, Lambert Henri, Henriette and Jean, followed the Grand Ducal family through Coimbra and Lisbon, settling at Praia das Maçãs after the Grand Ducal family had moved to Cascais. By August, the entire entourage had moved to Monte Estoril. The Dupong couple stayed at Chalet Posser de Andrade until 26 September 1940, while their children remained there until 2 October 1940. On 26 September, the couple boarded the S.S. Excalibur headed for New York City, arriving on 5 October 1940. Georgette and Betty Bech, the wife and daughter of Joseph Bech, the Foreign Minister of the Luxembourg government-in-exile, traveled with them.
Between 1940 and 1944, he led the government in exile in Montreal.He then presided over the Liberation Government, the National Union Government, and the Dupong-Schaus and the Dupong-Bodson governments. He is also notable for sending Luxembourgish soldiers in the UN mission during the Korean War, as part of the Belgian United Nations Command.
He was the father of Jean Dupong, who became a minister and CSV deputy himself.

Georges Gorse (15 February 1915 – 17 March 2002) was a French politician and diplomat.
Born in Cahors, he qualified in 1939 as a professor at the University of Cairo. During World War II he joined Charles de Gaulle and the Free French as Director of Information, served on the Provisional Consultative Assembly.
After the war he was elected to represent the Vendée in the French National Assembly from 1946 to 1951, and then the Section Française de l'Internationale Ouvrière (SFIO) from 1951 onwards. In 1957, Guy Mollet made him an Ambassador to Algeria, then he was elected as Gaullist representative which he held from 1967 to 1997.During the events of May 1968, having attended a private political meeting as Minister of Information, he broke the news to the French media of de Gaulle's now notorious statement "reform yes, but 'chienlit, no".Gorse held a wide range of positions of state:

Under-secretary of State for Muslim Affairs 1946 to 1947
Under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1949 to 1950
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1961 to 1962
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1962
Minister for Co-operation, 1962
Ambassador to Algeria, 1963 to 1967
Minister of Labour, 1973 to 1974
Mayor of Boulogne-Billancourt, 1971 to 1991