philippe petain

one of history’s clearest examples of how a reputation can completely reverse.

in world war i, petain became a national hero for his role at verdun. twenty four years later, after france fell to germany, he became head of the vichy regime, which collaborated with nazi germany and introduced its own antisemitic laws.

after the war, france convicted him of treason and sentenced him to death. because of his age and his earlier military service, charles de gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment.

few biographies go from national savior to convicted traitor quite that dramatically.