“Indeed there is a school of historical thought that argues that French elites, especially the military, would rather lose to Hitler than to the communists and this mindset accounts for their lackluster defense of France in 1940.”
That can be directly attributed to the murder of over 7,000 priests (including 12 bishops) and over 100 nuns in Spain during their civil war of 1936-1939; the Stalinists & Anarchists were ruthless, and Spain was saved from them by the intervention of Mussolini & Hitler.