Sophistry and vapid argumentation became the order of the day, as leaders sought to save face—or, as they would put it, to achieve an “honorable peace”—while treasure and lives were being lost. That the general public was for a long time apathetic about the war—most French voters, like most Americans later, were too preoccupied with their own lives to become interested in a small Asian country thousands of miles away—did not lessen this imperative, even if in theory it should have; it merely made it easier for officials to offer rote affirmations in favor of the status quo.
