Chapter 150: Demonizing the Enemy

Chapter 150: Demonizing the Enemy



Leon Sinclair had quickly found that the life of a general in the army, even one as low as a Brigadier General, was more often than not an occupation filled with paperwork, and sitting in a chair. The days of him requiring fitness tests, or even going out into the field to test his mettle in war, were long gone.

Then again, the man had only ever fought wars on behalf of the Third French Republic in colonial territories. He wasn't exactly fighting against civilized nations, or at the very least nations whose military might was not on par with the nation he hailed from.

His allies in the Marxist underground had been driven into silence. The French Government stamp out Marxist political activity the best they could after their former Army Chief of Staff was allegedly assassinated by them.

Frankly speaking, his career was stonewalled at the time. He had been appointed to the position of Brigadier General within his mid-thirties as a political stunt.

The man's actions in Madagascar had earned him a fearsome reputation, and with the rise of the "Loup de Prusse" as the French referred to as Bruno, and his tales of infamy on the world stage, the French felt the need to appoint their own menacing figure in order to save some reputation.

And while the French propaganda machine was fully backing Leon, the reality of the situation was that his accomplishments paled in comparison to Bruno's and the higher ups in the French General Staff were acutely aware of this.

Hence why, even as years passed, he remained in his position as the lowest possible general rank given by the French Army. Leon was a spectacle to keep the masses feeling secure. He was a poster child, nothing more, nothing less.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Of course, it was a quite common tactic to portray your enemy as someone who wanted to conquer the world, and it was a tactic that would repeat itself over and over again in propaganda well into the 21st century. As Bruno was all too aware, it was not that Leon was remotely cognizant of this fact.

Leon could only tear the propaganda off the wall. An act that one might find conflicting with his character if they didn't fully understand who he was.

Did he hate the Germans? Oh yes! But to depict them as monsters, and megalomaniacs who were hellbent on absurd goals that nobody in the history of mankind had ever actually aspired to. Well, that detracted from the real reason he believed they should be hated. And only served to mythicize their military capabilities.

After all, an army of werewolves was a terrifying prospect. According to legend, a werewolf could only be harmed by silver, a truly daunting concept considering there wasn't enough silver in the world to turn into the munitions necessary to kill the enemy in sufficient numbers to win a war against them.

Germans were mere men, and men could be killed as easily as any other, regardless of their nation of origin. Hence why Leon found this propaganda to be nothing but offensive. He tore it apart in the street and tossed it aside. All the while, a group of young children witnessed it.

One girl in the street pulled up the scraps and gazed upon the "handsome prince" depicted in the propaganda only to realize it was oddly reminiscent of the man standing in front of her. When she went to approach the man to ask why he tore up the poster, he simply looked at the girl with a menacing gaze and scared her off in a fearsome tone.

"Get lost, you little bitch!"

The girl quickly fled with tears in her eyes, and though Leon didn't realize it, she would take this matter to heart. Spreading rumors to all her friends and family that the man in the propaganda wasn't a prince, but rather a monster like the Germans were depicted as being. Unfortunately, nobody would believe she even met the famous Brigadier General Leon Sinclair, and that she was merely making things up, as children often do.

Regardless, the propaganda was simple proof that the public sentiment in France was rapidly becoming viler and hatred towards their eastern neighbors as the French themselves began to prepare for the potential outbreak of a war with the German Reich.