Inflamed by current events and sometimes inaccurate news reports, French scrutiny of the Vichy regime and its involvement with Nazi policies began to intensify in the 1980s. Recent disclosures about the ambivalent role of French President Francois Mitterand, coverage of the Paul Touvier trial, and the recent trial of Vichy civil servant Maurice Papon have further galvanized French attitudes toward the role of officials and public institutions during the Nazi occupation.

The authors argue that such frenzied attention "is disproportionate with respect both to the context of French history and to that of the present international scene," and that France's self-imposed duty to remember has led to "a total denial of the legitimacy of the right to forget."