Of the many unresolved issues surrounding the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda—over a three-month period between April to July 1994—that resulted in the loss of at least 650,000 Tutsi lives, and many more Hutu lives during and after the carnage—the extent and circumstances of France’s involvement in the slaughter is one of the most contentious. Among students of Rwanda only the most naïve or outrageously biased would deny the responsibility of French policy makers in the chain of events leading to the abyss. Just how much blame can be put at France’s doorstep and why is where opinions differ. At the risk of oversimplifying the terms of debate, at bottom the principal source of discord is between those who would exonerate the French government of all intended wrongdoing, while recognizing that mistakes were made, and those who would not hesitate for a moment to denounce France’s deliberate and substantial political, military and financial assistance to the Rwandan armed forces and youth militia.  It is worth revisiting the context for the mass killings, how historians and researchers have dealt with it since and, finally, the necessity of casting a revisionist eye on France’s role in the violence.