Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle | |
|---|---|
-(c).jpg) Wartime portrait, 1942 | |
| 18th President of France | |
| In office 8 January 1959 – 28 April 1969 | |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | Minister of Algerian Affairs |
| In office 12 June 1958 – 8 January 1959 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | André Mutter |
| Succeeded by | Louis Joxe |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle 22 November 1890 Union for the New Republic (1958–1967) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Alma mater | École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Branch/service |
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| Years of service | 1912–1944 |
| Rank | Brigade general |
| Unit |
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| Commands |
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| Battles/wars | |
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| This article is part of Conservatism in France |
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Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle[a] (/də ˈɡoʊl, də ˈɡɔːl/ də GOHL, də GAWL, French: [ʃaʁl də ɡol] ⓘ;[1] 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy in France. In 1958, amid the Algerian War, he came out of retirement when appointed Prime Minister by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position he held until his resignation in 1969.
Born in
When the
De Gaulle opposed any development of a
Early life
Childhood and origins
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born on 22 November 1890 in
Henri de Gaulle came from a long line of parliamentary gentry from
De Gaulle's father encouraged historical and philosophical debate between his children, and through his encouragement, de Gaulle learned French history from an early age. Struck by his mother's tales of how she cried as a child when she heard of the French capitulation to the Germans at
Education and intellectual influences
De Gaulle began writing in his early teens, especially poetry; his family paid for a composition, a one-act verse play, to be privately published.[8] A voracious reader, he favored philosophical tomes by such writers as Bergson, Péguy, and Barrès. In addition to the German philosophers Nietzsche, Kant, and Goethe, he read the works of the ancient Greeks (especially Plato) and the prose of Chateaubriand.[8]
De Gaulle was educated in Paris at the Collège Stanislas and studied briefly in Belgium.[3]: 51–53 At the age of fifteen he wrote an essay imagining "General de Gaulle" leading the French Army to victory over Germany in 1930; he later wrote that in his youth he had looked forward with somewhat naive anticipation to the inevitable future war with Germany to avenge the French defeat of 1870.[9]
France during de Gaulle's adolescence was a divided society, with many developments which were unwelcome to the de Gaulle family: the growth of socialism and
De Gaulle was not an outstanding pupil until his mid-teens, but from July 1906 he focused on winning a place at the military academy,
Early career
Officer cadet and lieutenant
De Gaulle won a place at Saint-Cyr in 1909. His class ranking was mediocre (119th out of 221).[10] Under a law of 21 March 1905, aspiring army officers were required to serve a year in the ranks, including time as a private and as an NCO, before attending the academy. Accordingly, in October 1909, de Gaulle enlisted (for four years, as required, rather than the normal two-year term for conscripts) in the 33rd Infantry Regiment of the French Army, based at Arras.[12] This was a historic regiment with Austerlitz, Wagram, and Borodino amongst its battle honours.[13] In April 1910 he was promoted to corporal. His company commander declined to promote him to sergeant, the usual rank for a potential officer, commenting that the young man clearly felt that nothing less than Constable of France would be good enough for him.[14][12] He was eventually promoted to sergeant in September 1910.[15]
De Gaulle took up his place at Saint-Cyr in October 1910. By the end of his first year he had risen to 45th place.[16] He was nicknamed "the great asparagus" because of his height (196 cm, 6'5"), high forehead, and nose.[3]: 301 He did well at the academy and received praise for his conduct, manners, intelligence, character, military spirit, and resistance to fatigue. In 1912, he graduated 13th in his class[17] and his passing-out report noted that he was a gifted cadet who would undoubtedly make an excellent officer. The future Marshal Alphonse Juin was first in the class, although the two do not appear to have been close at the time.[18]
Preferring to serve in France rather than the overseas colonies, in October 1912 he rejoined the 33rd Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant. The regiment was now commanded by Colonel (and future Marshal) Philippe Pétain, whom de Gaulle would follow for the next 15 years. He later wrote in his memoirs: "My first colonel, Pétain, taught me the art of command".[19][18]
It has been claimed that in the build-up to
De Gaulle was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1913.[21]
First World War
Combat
When war broke out in France in early August 1914, the 33rd Regiment, considered one of the best fighting units in France, was immediately thrown into checking the German advance at
As a platoon commander, de Gaulle was involved in fierce fighting from the outset. He received his
He rejoined his regiment in October, as commander of the 7th company. Many of his former comrades were already dead. In December he became regimental adjutant.[15]
De Gaulle's unit gained recognition for repeatedly crawling out into no man's land to listen to the conversations of the enemy, and the information brought back was so valuable that on 18 January 1915 he received the Croix de Guerre. On 10 February he was promoted to captain, initially on probation.[15] On 10 March 1915, de Gaulle was shot in the left hand, a wound which initially seemed trivial but became infected.[23] The wound incapacitated him for four months and later forced him to wear his wedding ring on the right hand.[3]: 61 [15][24] In August he commanded the 10th company before returning to duty as regimental adjutant. On 3 September 1915 his rank of captain became permanent. In late October, he returned to command of 10th company.[15]
As a company commander at Douaumont (during the Battle of Verdun) on 2 March 1916, while leading a charge to try to break out of a position which had become surrounded, he received a bayonet wound to the left thigh after being stunned by a shell and was captured after passing out from the effects of poison gas. He was one of the few survivors of his battalion.[25][15][3]: 63 The circumstances of his capture would later become a subject of debate as anti-Gaullists spread rumour that he had actually surrendered, a claim de Gaulle nonchalantly dismissed.[26]
Prisoner
De Gaulle spent 32 months in six different prisoner camps, but he spent most time in the Ingolstadt Fortress [de],[27]: 40 where his treatment was satisfactory.[25]
In captivity, de Gaulle read German newspapers (he had learned German at school and spent a summer vacation in Germany) and gave talks on his view of the conflict to fellow prisoners. His patriotic fervour and confidence in victory earned him the nickname Le Connétable ("
Originally interned at
Between the wars
Early 1920s: Poland and staff college
After the armistice, de Gaulle served with the staff of the
De Gaulle returned to France, where he became a lecturer in military history at Saint-Cyr.
Mid-1920s: ghostwriter for Pétain
De Gaulle's career was saved by Pétain, who arranged for his staff college grade to be amended to bien ("good"—but not the "excellent" needed for a general staff posting).
Friction arose between de Gaulle and Pétain over Le Soldat, a history of the French soldier which he had ghost-written and for which he wanted greater writing credit. He had written mainly historical material, but Pétain wanted to add a final chapter of his own thoughts. There was at least one stormy meeting late in 1926 after which de Gaulle was seen to emerge, white with anger, from Pétain's office.[37] In October 1926 he returned to his duties with the Headquarters of the Army of the Rhine.[38]
De Gaulle had sworn that he would never return to the École de Guerre except as commandant, but at Pétain's invitation, and introduced to the stage by his patron, he delivered three lectures there in April 1927: "Leadership in Wartime", "Character", and "Prestige". These later formed the basis for his book The Edge of the Sword (1932).[39]
Late-1920s: Trier and Beirut
After spending twelve years as a captain, a normal period, de Gaulle was promoted to commandant (major) on 25 September 1927.[39] In November 1927 he began a two-year posting as commanding officer of the 19th chasseurs à pied (a battalion of élite light infantry) with the occupation forces at Trier.[40][3]: 94
De Gaulle trained his men hard (a river crossing exercise of the freezing
The breach between de Gaulle and Pétain over the ghost-writing of Le Soldat had deepened in 1928. Pétain brought in a new ghostwriter, Colonel Audet, who was unwilling to take on the job and wrote to de Gaulle in some embarrassment to take over the project. Pétain was quite friendly about the matter but did not publish the book.
The Allied occupation of the Rhineland was ending, and de Gaulle's battalion was due to be disbanded, although the decision was later rescinded after he had moved to his next posting. De Gaulle wanted a teaching post at the École de Guerre in 1929.
1930s: staff officer
In the spring of 1931, as his posting in Beirut drew to a close, de Gaulle once again asked Pétain for a posting to the École de Guerre. Pétain tried to obtain an appointment for him as Professor of History there, but once again the faculty would not have him. Instead de Gaulle, drawing on plans he had drawn up in 1928 for reform of that institution, asked Pétain to create a special post for him which would enable him to lecture on "the Conduct of War" both to the École de Guerre and to the Centre des Hautes Études Militaires (CHEM – a senior staff college for generals, known as the "school for marshals"), to civilians at the
Pétain instead advised him to apply for a posting to the Secrétariat Général du Conseil Supérieur de la Défense Nationale (SGDN – General Secretariat of the Supreme War Council) in Paris. Pétain promised to lobby for the appointment, which he thought would be good experience for him. De Gaulle was posted to SGDN in November 1931, initially as a "drafting officer".[45][3]: 94
He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in December 1932 and appointed Head of the Third Section (operations). His service at SGDN gave him six years' experience of the interface between army planning and government, enabling him to take on ministerial responsibilities in 1940.[3]: 97 [46]
After studying arrangements in the US, Italy, and Belgium, de Gaulle drafted a bill for the organisation of the country in wartime. He made a presentation about his bill to the CHEM. The bill passed the Chamber of Deputies but failed in the Senate.[47]
Early 1930s: proponent of armoured warfare
Unlike Pétain, de Gaulle believed in the use of tanks and rapid maneuvers rather than trench warfare.
In 1934 de Gaulle wrote Vers l'Armée de Métier (Towards a Professional Army). He proposed mechanization of the infantry, with stress on an élite force of 100,000 men and 3,000 tanks. The book imagined tanks driving around the country like cavalry. De Gaulle's mentor Emile Mayer was somewhat more prophetic than he was about the future importance of air power on the battlefield. Such an army would both compensate for France's population shortage, and be an efficient tool to enforce international law, particularly the Treaty of Versailles. He also thought it would be a precursor to a deeper national reorganisation, and wrote that "a master has to make his appearance [...] whose orders cannot be challenged – a man upheld by public opinion".[49]
Only 700 copies were sold in France; the claim that thousands of copies were sold in Germany[19] is thought to be an exaggeration. De Gaulle used the book to widen his contacts among journalists, notably with André Pironneau, editor of L'Écho de Paris. The book attracted praise across the political spectrum, apart from the hard left who were committed to the Republican ideal of a citizen army.[50] De Gaulle's views attracted the attention of the maverick politician Paul Reynaud, to whom he wrote frequently, sometimes in obsequious terms. Reynaud first invited him to meet him on 5 December 1934.[51]
De Gaulle was deeply focused on his career at this time. There is no evidence that he was tempted by fascism, and there is little evidence of his views either on domestic upheavals in 1934 and 1936 or the many foreign policy crises of the decade.[52] He approved of the rearmament drive which the Popular Front government began in 1936, although French military doctrine remained that tanks should be used in penny packets for infantry support (ironically, in 1940 it would be German panzer units that would be used in a manner similar to what de Gaulle had advocated).[53] A rare insight into de Gaulle's political views is a letter to his mother warning that war with Germany was inevitable and reassuring her that Pierre Laval's pact with the USSR in 1935 was for the best, likening it to Francis I's alliance with the Turks against Emperor Charles V.[54]
Late 1930s: tank regiment
From April 1936, whilst still in his staff position at SGDN, de Gaulle was a lecturer to generals at CHEM.[47] De Gaulle's superiors disapproved of his views about tanks, and he was passed over for promotion to full colonel in 1936, supposedly because his service record was not good enough. He called on his political patron Reynaud, who showed his record to Minister of War Édouard Daladier. Daladier, who was an enthusiast for rearmament with modern weapons, ensured that his name was on the promotion list for the following year.[3]: 109 [55]
In 1937 General Bineau, who had taught him at Saint-Cyr, wrote on his report on his lectureship at CHEM that he was highly able and suitable for high command in the future, but that he hid his attributes under "a cold and lofty attitude".[47] He was put in command of the 507th Tank Regiment (a battalion of medium Char D2s and a battalion of R35 light tanks) at Metz on 13 July 1937, and his promotion to full colonel took effect on 24 December that year. De Gaulle attracted public attention by leading a parade of 80 tanks into the Place d'Armes at Metz, in his command tank "Austerlitz".[56]
By now de Gaulle was becoming a well-known figure, known as "Colonel Motor(s)".[3]: 117 At the invitation of the publisher Plon, he produced another book, La France et son Armée (France and Her Army) in 1938. De Gaulle incorporated much of the text he had written for Pétain a decade earlier for the uncompleted book Le Soldat, to Pétain's displeasure. De Gaulle agreed to include a dedication to Pétain (although he wrote his own rather than using the draft Pétain sent him), which was dropped from postwar editions. Until 1938 Pétain had treated de Gaulle, as Lacouture puts it, "with unbounded good will", but by October 1938 he privately thought his former protégé "an ambitious man, and very ill-bred".[57]
World War II
Early war
At the outbreak of World War II, de Gaulle was put in command of the French
At the start of October 1939, Reynaud asked for a staff posting under de Gaulle, but remained at his post as Minister of Finance. De Gaulle's tanks were inspected by
In late February 1940, Reynaud told de Gaulle that he had been earmarked for command of an armoured division as soon as one became available.[61] Early in 1940 (the exact date is uncertain), de Gaulle proposed to Reynaud that he be appointed Secretary-General of the War Council, which would in effect make him the government's military adviser. When Reynaud became prime minister in March, he was reliant on Daladier's backing, so the job went instead to the politician Paul Baudouin.[62]
In late March, Reynaud told de Gaulle that he would be given command of the
Battle of France
Division commander
The Germans
The attack at
De Gaulle's rank of brigadier-general became effective on 1 June 1940.[3]: 127 That day he was in Paris. After visiting his tailor to be fitted for his general's uniform, he met Reynaud, who appears to have offered him a government job for the first time, and afterwards the commander-in-chief Maxime Weygand, who congratulated him on saving France's honour and asked for his advice.[71] On 2 June he sent a memo to Weygand vainly urging that the French armoured divisions be consolidated from four weak divisions into three stronger ones and concentrated into an armoured corps under his command. He made the same suggestion to Reynaud.[71]
Government minister
On 5 June, the day the Germans began the second phase of their offensive (
On 8 June, de Gaulle visited Weygand, who believed it was "the end" and that after France was defeated Britain would soon sue for peace.[76] A day later, de Gaulle flew to London and met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first time. It was thought that half a million men could be evacuated to French North Africa, provided the British and French navies and air forces coordinated their efforts. Either at this meeting or on 16 June, he urged Churchill in vain to throw more Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft into the Battle of France but conceded that Churchill was right to refuse.[77]
On 11 June, de Gaulle drove to Arcis-sur-Aube and offered General Charles Huntziger Weygand's job as Commander-in-Chief. Huntziger accepted in principle, but de Gaulle was unable to persuade Reynaud to sack Weygand.[78] On 13 June, de Gaulle attended another Anglo-French conference at Tours with Churchill, Lord Halifax, Lord Beaverbrook, Edward Spears, Baron Ismay, and Alexander Cadogan.[79] De Gaulle was dissuaded from resigning by the Interior Minister Georges Mandel, who argued that the war was just beginning, and that de Gaulle needed to keep his reputation unsullied.[80] Nevertheless, at around 9:00 on 17 June, de Gaulle flew to London on a British aircraft with Spears. De Gaulle later told André Malraux of the mental anguish which his flight to London – a break with the French Army and with the recognised government, which would inevitably be seen as treason by many – had caused him.[81]
Leader of the Free French in exile
Appeal from London
The small audience of the 18 June appeal grew for later speeches,[27]: 5–6 and the press by early August described Free French military as fighting under de Gaulle's command,[85] although few in France knew anything about him.[27]
The Vichy regime had already sentenced de Gaulle to four years' imprisonment; on 2 August 1940 he was condemned to death by court martial in absentia,[86] although Pétain commented that he would ensure that the sentence was never carried out.[87] De Gaulle said of the sentence, "I consider the act of the Vichy men as void; I shall have an explanation with them after the victory".[85] He and Churchill reached agreement on 7 August 1940, that Britain would fund the Free French, with the bill to be settled after the war (the financial agreement was finalised in March 1941). A separate letter guaranteed the territorial integrity of the French Empire.[88]
De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in the colonial French Equatorial Africa. In the autumn of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October, where he announced the formation of an Empire Defense Council[89] in his "Brazzaville Manifesto",[90] and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and the Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943.[89][91]
Algiers
Working with the French Resistance and other supporters in France's colonial African possessions after Operation Torch in November 1942, de Gaulle moved his headquarters to Algiers in May 1943. He became first joint head (with the less resolutely independent General Henri Giraud, the candidate preferred by the US who wrongly suspected de Gaulle of being a British puppet) and then—after squeezing out Giraud by force of personality—sole chairman of the French Committee of National Liberation.[66]
De Gaulle was held in high regard by Allied commander General
Preparations for D-Day
As preparations for the liberation of Europe gathered pace, the US in particular found de Gaulle's tendency to view everything from the French perspective to be extremely tiresome. President Roosevelt, who refused to recognize any provisional authority in France until elections had been held, referred to de Gaulle as "an apprentice dictator", a view backed by a number of leading Frenchmen in Washington, including Jean Monnet, who later became instrumental in setting up the European Coal and Steel Community that led to the modern European Union. Roosevelt directed Churchill not to provide de Gaulle with strategic details of the imminent invasion because he did not trust him to keep the information to himself. French codes were considered weak, posing a risk since the Free French refused to use British or American codes.[93] De Gaulle refused to share coded information with the British, who were then obliged secretly to break the codes to read French messages.[94]
Upon his arrival at RAF Northolt on 4 June 1944 he received an official welcome.[93] Later, on his personal train, Churchill informed him that he wanted him to make a radio address, but when informed that the Americans continued to refuse to recognise his right to power in France, and after Churchill suggested he request a meeting with Roosevelt to improve his relationship with the president, de Gaulle became angry, demanding to know why he should "lodge my candidacy for power in France with Roosevelt; the French government exists".[3]
Return to France
On 14 June 1944, he left Britain for the city of Bayeux, Normandy, which he proclaimed as the capital of Free France. Appointing his Aide-de-Camp Francois Coulet as head of the civil administration, de Gaulle returned to the UK that same night on a French destroyer, and although the official position of the supreme military command remained unchanged, local Allied officers found it more practical to deal with the fledgling administration in Bayeux in everyday matters.[93] De Gaulle flew to Algiers on 16 June and then went to Rome to meet the Pope and the new Italian government. At the beginning of July, he visited Roosevelt in Washington, where he received the 17-gun salute of a senior military leader rather than the 21 guns of a visiting head of state.[3] De Gaulle successfully lobbied for Paris to be made a priority for liberation on humanitarian grounds and obtained from Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower an agreement that French troops would be allowed to enter the capital first. A few days later, General Leclerc's division entered the outskirts of the city, and after six days of fighting in which the resistance played a major part, the German garrison of 5000 men surrendered on 25 August, although some sporadic fighting continued for several days.[95]
On the evening of 26 August, the Wehrmacht launched a massive aerial and artillery barrage of Paris in revenge, leaving several thousand dead or injured.[96] The situation in Paris remained tense, and a few days later, de Gaulle asked General Eisenhower to send American troops into Paris as a show of strength. On 29 August, the US 28th Infantry Division was rerouted from its journey to the front line and paraded down the Champs Elysees.[96][97]
The same day, Washington and London agreed to accept the position of the Free French. The following day General Eisenhower gave his de facto blessing with a visit to the General in Paris.[98]
1944–1946: Provisional Government of the French Republic
With the prewar parties and most of their leaders discredited, there was little opposition to de Gaulle and his associates forming an interim administration. In order not to be seen as presuming on his position in such austere times, de Gaulle did not use one of the grand official residences such as
On 10 November 1944, Churchill flew to Paris to a reception by de Gaulle and the two together were greeted by thousands of cheering Parisians on the next day.[101] Harold Nicolson stated that Anthony Eden told him that "not for one moment did Winston stop crying, and that he could have filled buckets by the time he received the Freedom of Paris."[101] At an official luncheon, de Gaulle said:
It is true that we would not have seen [the liberation] if our old and gallant ally England, and all the British dominions under precisely the impulsion and inspiration of those we are honouring today, had not deployed the extraordinary determination to win, and that magnificent courage which saved the freedom of the world. There is no French man or woman who is not touched to the depths of their hearts and souls by this.[101]
Legal purges (Épuration légale)
Keenly aware of the need to seize the initiative and get the process under firm judicial control, de Gaulle appointed Justice Minister François de Menthon to lead the Legal Purge (Épuration légale) to punish traitors and clear away traces of the Vichy regime. Knowing that he would need to reprieve many of the 'economic collaborators'—such as police and civil servants who held minor roles under Vichy to keep the country running—he assumed, as head of state, the right to commute death sentences.[3] Of the near 2,000 people who received the death sentence from the courts, fewer than 800 were executed. De Gaulle commuted 998 of the 1,554 capital sentences submitted before him, including all women. Many others were given jail terms or had their voting rights and other legal privileges taken away. It is generally agreed that the purges were conducted arbitrarily, with often absurdly severe or overly lenient punishments being handed down.[100] Less well-off people who were unable to pay for lawyers were more harshly treated. As time went by and feelings grew less intense, a number of people who had held fairly senior positions under the Vichy government—such as Maurice Papon and René Bousquet—escaped consequences by claiming to have worked secretly for the resistance or to have played a double game, working for the good of France by serving the established order.[100]
Pétain received a death sentence, which his old protégé de Gaulle commuted to life imprisonment, while Maxime Weygand was eventually acquitted. There was a widespread belief, particularly in the years that followed, that de Gaulle was trying to appease both the Third Republic politicians and the former Vichy leaders who had made Laval their scapegoat.[100]
Yalta and Potsdam
De Gaulle was never invited to the summit conferences of Allied leaders such as Yalta and Potsdam. He never forgave the Big Three leaders (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) for their neglect and continued to rage against it as having been a negative factor in European politics for the rest of his life.[7]
After the Rhine crossings, the French First Army captured a large section of territory in southern Germany, but although this later allowed France to play a part in the signing of the German surrender, Roosevelt in particular refused to allow any discussion about de Gaulle participating in the Big Three conferences that would shape Europe in the post-war world. Churchill pressed hard for France to be included 'at the inter-allied table', but on 6 December 1944 the American president wired both Stalin and Churchill to say that de Gaulle's presence would "merely introduce a complicating and undesirable factor".[102]
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, despite Stalin's opposition, Churchill and Roosevelt insisted that France be allowed a post-war occupation zone in Germany, and also made sure that it was included among the five nations that invited others to the conference to establish the United Nations. This guaranteed France a permanent seat on the
Victory in Europe
In May 1945 the German armies surrendered to the Americans and British at Rheims, and a separate armistice was signed with France in Berlin.
Another confrontation with the Americans broke out soon after the armistice when the French sent troops to occupy the French-speaking Italian border region of
Within the same month another crisis developed in Syria where French troops tried to quell nationalist protests at the continued occupation of the Levant. Winston Churchill opposed French action and after they refused to negotiate he ordered British forces into Syria from Transjordan with orders to fire on the French if necessary.[106] Known as the Levant Crisis, British forces swept into Syria forcing the French to stand down, and with political pressure added by the United States and Soviet Union, the French ordered a ceasefire. This crisis further infuriated Truman, and France evacuated its troops later in the year but de Gaulle said to the British ambassador Duff Cooper, 'you have betrayed France and betrayed the West. That cannot be forgotten'.[3]: 47
De Gaulle was generally well received in the United States immediately after World War II and supported the US in public comments. He visited New York City on 27 August 1945 to great welcome by thousands of people of the city and its mayor Fiorello La Guardia.[107][108] On that day, de Gaulle wished "Long live the United States of America". He visited New York City Hall and Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), and presented LaGuardia with the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour award.[107][108]
New elections and resignation
Since the liberation, the only parliament in France had been an enlarged version of the Algiers Provisional Consultative Assembly, and at last, in October 1945, elections were held for a new Constituent Assembly whose main task was to provide a new constitution for the Fourth Republic. De Gaulle favoured a strong executive for the nation,[19] but all three of the main parties wished to severely restrict the powers of the president. The Communists wanted an assembly with full constitutional powers and no time limit, whereas de Gaulle, the Socialists and the Popular Republican Movement (MRP) advocated one with a term limited to only seven months, after which the draft constitution would be submitted for another referendum.[109]
On 13 November 1945, the new assembly unanimously elected Charles de Gaulle head of the government, but problems immediately arose when it came to selecting the cabinet, due to his unwillingness to allow the Communists any important ministries. The Communists, now the largest party and with their charismatic leader Maurice Thorez back at the helm, were not prepared to accept this for a second time, and a furious row ensued, during which de Gaulle sent a letter of resignation to the speaker of the Assembly and declared that he was unwilling to trust a party that he considered to be an agent of a foreign power (Russia) with authority over the police and armed forces.[7]
Eventually, the new cabinet was finalised on 21 November, with the Communists receiving five out of the twenty-two ministries, and although they still did not get any key portfolios, de Gaulle believed that the draft constitution placed too much power in the hands of parliament with its shifting party alliances. One of his ministers said he was "a man equally incapable of monopolizing power as of sharing it".[110]
De Gaulle outlined a programme of further nationalisations and a new economic plan which were passed, but a further row came when the Communists demanded a 20-percent reduction in the military budget. Refusing to "rule by compromise", de Gaulle once more threatened to resign. There was a general feeling that he was trying to blackmail the assembly into complete subservience.[100] Although the MRP managed to broker a compromise which saw the budget approved with amendments, it was a stop-gap measure.[7]
Barely two months after forming the new government, de Gaulle abruptly resigned on 20 January 1946. The move was called "a bold and ultimately foolish political ploy", with de Gaulle hoping that as a war hero, he would be soon brought back as a more powerful executive by the French people.[111] However, that did not turn out to be the case. With the war finally over, the initial crisis had passed. Although there were still shortages, particularly of bread, France was now recovering, and de Gaulle suddenly did not seem so indispensable. The Communist publication Combat wrote, "There was no cataclysm, and the empty plate didn't crack".[100]
1946–1958: Out of power
De Gaulle suddenly dropped out of sight and returned to his home in Colombey to write his war memoirs. De Gaulle had told Pierre Bertaux in 1944 that he planned to retire because "France may still one day need an image that is pure ... If Joan of Arc had married, she would no longer have been Joan of Arc".[112] The famous opening paragraph of Mémoires de guerre begins by declaring, "All my life, I have had a certain idea of France (une certaine idée de la France)",[113]: 2 and ends by declaring that, given the divisive nature of French politics, France cannot truly live up to this ideal without a policy of "grandeur". During this period of formal retirement, however, de Gaulle maintained regular contact with past political lieutenants, including sympathizers involved in political developments in French Algeria, becoming "perhaps the best-informed man in France".[19]
In April 1947, de Gaulle made a renewed attempt to transform the political scene by creating a
As with all colonial powers France began to lose its overseas possessions amid the surge of nationalism.
The independence of Morocco and Tunisia was arranged by Mendès France and proclaimed in March 1956. Meanwhile, in Algeria some 350,000 French troops were fighting 150,000 combatants of the Algerian Liberation Movement (FLN). Within a few years, the Algerian war of independence reached a summit in terms of savagery and bloodshed and threatened to spill into metropolitan France itself.
Between 1946 and 1958 the Fourth Republic had 24 separate ministries. Frustrated by the endless divisiveness, de Gaulle famously asked, "How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?"[116]
1958: Collapse of the Fourth Republic
The
On 13 May 1958, the Pied-Noir settlers seized the government buildings in Algiers, attacking what they saw as French government weakness in the face of demands among the FLN demand for Algerian independence. A "Committee of Civil and Army Public Security" was created under the presidency of General Jacques Massu, a Gaullist sympathiser. General Raoul Salan, Commander-in-Chief in Algeria, announced on radio that he was assuming provisional power, and appealed for confidence in himself.[119]
At a 19 May press conference, de Gaulle asserted that he was at the disposal of the country. As a journalist expressed the concerns of some who feared that he would violate civil liberties, de Gaulle retorted: "Have I ever done that? On the contrary, I have re-established them when they had disappeared. Who honestly believes that, at age 67, I would start a career as a dictator?"[120] A constitutionalist by conviction, he maintained that he would accept power only from the lawfully constituted authorities. De Gaulle did not wish to repeat the difficulty the Free French movement experienced in establishing legitimacy as the rightful government. He told an aide that the rebel generals "will not find de Gaulle in their baggage".[19]
The crisis deepened as French paratroops from Algeria seized Corsica and a landing near Paris was discussed (Operation Resurrection).[121]
Political leaders on many sides agreed to support the General's return to power, except
On 29 May the French President, René Coty, told parliament that the nation was on the brink of civil war, so he was
turning towards the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards the man who, in the darkest years of our history, was our chief for the reconquest of freedom and who refused dictatorship in order to re-establish the Republic. I ask General de Gaulle to confer with the head of state and to examine with him what, in the framework of Republican legality, is necessary for the immediate formation of a government of national safety and what can be done, in a fairly short time, for a deep reform of our institutions.[122]
De Gaulle accepted Coty's proposal under the precondition that a new constitution would be introduced creating a powerful presidency in which a sole executive, the first of which was to be himself, ruled for seven-year periods. Another condition was that he be granted extraordinary powers for a period of six months.[123]
De Gaulle remained intent on replacing the weak constitution of the Fourth Republic. He is sometimes described as the author of the
De Gaulle's cabinet received strong support from right-wing parties, split support from left of center parties, and strong opposition from the Communist Party. In the vote on 1 June 1958, 329 votes were cast in favor and 224 against, out of 593 deputies.
1958–1969: Return to power
In the November 1958 election, Charles de Gaulle and his supporters (initially the Union pour la Nouvelle République-Union Démocratique du Travail, then the Union des Démocrates pour la Vème République, later still the Union des Démocrates pour la République, UDR) won a comfortable majority. On 21 December, he was elected President of France; he was inaugurated in January 1959. As head of state, he became ex officio the Co-Prince of Andorra.[127]
De Gaulle oversaw tough economic measures to revitalise the country, including the issuing of a new franc.[128] Less than a year after taking office, he was confronted with national tragedy, after the Malpasset Dam in Var collapsed in early December, killing over 400. Internationally, he rebuffed both the United States and the Soviet Union, pushing for an independent France with its own nuclear weapons and strongly encouraging a "Free Europe", believing that a confederation of all European nations would restore the past glories of the great European empires.[4]: 411, 428
He set about building
On 23 November 1959, in a speech in Strasbourg, he announced his vision for Europe:
Oui, c'est l'Europe, depuis l'Atlantique jusqu'à l'Oural, c'est toute l'Europe, qui décidera du destin du monde.
Yes, it is Europe, from the
Urals, it is the whole of Europe, that will decide the destiny of the world.
His expression, "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals", has often been cited throughout the history of
Algeria
Upon becoming president, de Gaulle was faced with the urgent task of ending the bloody and divisive war in Algeria.[131] Although the military's near coup had contributed to his return to power, de Gaulle soon ordered all officers to quit the rebellious Committees of Public Safety. Such actions greatly angered the pieds-noirs and their military supporters.[132]
He faced uprisings in Algeria by the pied-noirs and the French armed forces. On assuming the prime minister role in June 1958, he immediately went to Algeria, and neutralised the army there. For the long term he devised a plan to modernize Algeria's traditional economy, deescalated the war, and offered Algeria self-determination in 1959. A
Prime Minister Michel Debré resigned over the final settlement and was replaced with Georges Pompidou. France recognised Algerian independence on 3 July 1962, and a blanket amnesty law was belatedly voted in 1968, covering all crimes committed by the French army during the war. In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 Pied-Noirs left the country. After 5 July, the exodus accelerated in the wake of the French deaths during the Oran massacre of 1962.
Assassination attempts
De Gaulle was targeted for death by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), in retaliation for his Algerian initiatives. Several assassination attempts were made on him; the most famous occurred on 22 August 1962, when he and his wife narrowly escaped from an organized machine gun ambush on their Citroën DS limousine.[134] The attack was arranged by Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry at Petit-Clamart.[4]: 381 It is claimed that there were at least 30 assassination attempts against de Gaulle throughout his lifetime.[135][136][137]
Direct presidential elections
In September 1962, de Gaulle sought a constitutional amendment to allow the president to be directly elected by the people and issued another
De Gaulle's proposal to change the election procedure for the French presidency was approved at the referendum on 28 October 1962. Thereafter the president was to be elected by direct universal suffrage for the first time since Louis Napoleon in 1848.[140]
In December 1965, de Gaulle returned as president for a second seven-year term.
"Thirty glorious years"
With the Algerian conflict behind him, de Gaulle was able to achieve his two main objectives, the reform and development of the French economy, and the promotion of an independent foreign policy and a strong presence on the international stage. This was named by foreign observers the "politics of grandeur".[141]
In the immediate post-war years France was in poor shape;
Aided by these projects, the French economy recorded growth rates unrivalled since the 19th century. In 1964, for the first time in nearly 100 years[143] France's GDP overtook that of the United Kingdom for a time. This period is remembered in France as the peak of the Trente Glorieuses ("Thirty Glorious Years" of economic growth between 1945 and 1974).[144]
Fourth nuclear power
With the cancellation of
After six years of effort, on 13 February 1960, France became the
In November 1967, an article by the French Chief of the General Staff (but inspired by de Gaulle) in the Revue de la Défense Nationale caused international consternation. It was stated that the French nuclear force should be capable of firing "in all directions"—thus including even America as a potential target. This surprising statement was intended as a declaration of French national independence and was in retaliation to a warning issued long ago by Dean Rusk that US missiles would be aimed at France if it attempted to employ atomic weapons outside an agreed plan. However, criticism of de Gaulle was growing over his tendency to act alone with little regard for the views of others.[147]
Foreign policy
De Gaulle hosted a superpower summit on 17 May 1960 for arms limitation talks and détente efforts in the wake of the
In February 1966, France withdrew from the
In January 1964, France was, after the UK, among the first of the major Western powers to open diplomatic relations with the
With tension rising in the Middle East in 1967, de Gaulle declared an
Under de Gaulle's leadership, France supported the breakaway
In July 1967, during a visit to Canada, de Gaulle shouted "Vive le Québec libre! Vive le Canada français! Et vive la France!" (Long live free Quebec! Long live French Canada, and long live France!) to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal's city hall; de Gaulle abruptly left Canada two days later.[165] The speech was heavily criticized in both Canada and France,[166][167][168][169] but was seen as a watershed moment by the Quebec sovereignty movement.[170][171]
May 1968 and resignation
De Gaulle's government was criticized within France, particularly for its heavy-handed style. While the written press and elections were free, and private stations such as Europe 1 were able to broadcast in French from abroad, the state's ORTF had a monopoly on television and radio. This monopoly meant that the government was in a position to directly influence broadcast news. In many respects, Gaullist France was conservative, Catholic, and there were few women in high-level political posts (in May 1968, the government's ministers were 100% male).[172]
The mass demonstrations and strikes in France in May 1968 severely challenged De Gaulle's legitimacy. He and other government leaders feared that the country was on the brink of revolution or civil war. On 29 May, De Gaulle fled to Baden-Baden in Germany to meet with General Massu, head of the French military there, to discuss possible army intervention. De Gaulle returned to France after being assured of the military's support, in return for which De Gaulle agreed to amnesty for the 1961 coup plotters and OAS members.[173][174]
In a private meeting discussing the students' and workers' demands for direct participation in business and government he coined the phrase "La réforme oui, la
But de Gaulle offered to accept some of the reforms the demonstrators sought. He again considered a referendum to support his moves, but on 30 May, Pompidou persuaded him to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. The June 1968 elections were a major success for the Gaullists. His party won 352 of 487 seats,[176] but de Gaulle remained personally unpopular.[173]
De Gaulle resigned the presidency at noon, 28 April 1969,[177] following the rejection of his proposed reform of the Senate and local governments in a nationwide referendum. Two months later Georges Pompidou was elected as his successor.[178]
Later life
Retirement
De Gaulle retired once again to his nine-acre country estate, La Boisserie (the woodland glade), in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, 120 miles southeast of Paris. There the General, who often described old age as a "shipwreck",[179] continued his memoirs, dictated to his secretary from notes. To visitors, de Gaulle said, "I will finish three books, if God grants me life." The Renewal, the first of three planned volumes to be called Memoirs of Hope, was quickly finished and immediately became the fastest seller in French publishing history.
Death
On the evening of 9 November 1970, de Gaulle, who had generally enjoyed good health in his lifetime, died suddenly from an aneurysm while watching the news on television. His wife asked that she be allowed to inform her family before the news was released. President Georges Pompidou, who was informed early the next day, announced the general's death on television, simply saying "General de Gaulle is dead. France is a widow."
De Gaulle had insisted his funeral be held at Colombey, and that no presidents or ministers attend—only his
The funeral on 12 November 1970 was the biggest such event in French history and a national mourning was declared.[181][182] Thousands of guests attended, included De Gaulle's successor Georges Pompidou, U.S. president Richard Nixon, British prime minister Edward Heath, UN secretary-general U Thant, Soviet statesman Nikolai Podgorny, Italian president Giuseppe Saragat, West German chancellor Willy Brandt and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.[179] The General was conveyed to the church on a turretless Panhard EBR and carried to his grave, next to his daughter Anne, by eight young men of Colombey. As he was lowered into the ground, the bells of all the churches in France tolled, starting from Notre Dame and spreading out from there.[183]
De Gaulle specified that his tombstone bear the simple inscription of his name and his years of birth and death.[184]
Personal life
De Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux on 7 April 1921 in Église Notre-Dame de Calais. They had three children: Philippe (1921–2024), Élisabeth (1924–2013), who married General Alain de Boissieu, and Anne (1928–1948). Anne had Down syndrome and died of pneumonia at the age of 20.
De Gaulle always had a particular love for his daughter Anne; one Colombey resident recalled how he used to walk with her hand-in-hand around the property, talking quietly about the things she understood.[179]
De Gaulle had an older brother Xavier and sister Marie-Agnes, and two younger brothers, Jacques and Pierre.
One of de Gaulle's grandsons, also named
Legacy
Reputation
De Gaulle made 31 regional tours during his presidency, visiting every French department; for many small towns, the visit was an important moment in history. He enjoyed entering the welcoming crowds; an aide noted how often people said, "he saw me" or "he touched me", and another recalled how a mother begged de Gaulle for the
Historians have accorded Napoleon and de Gaulle the top-ranking status of French leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries.[188] According to a 2005 survey, carried out in the context of the tenth anniversary of the death of François Mitterrand, 35 percent of respondents said Mitterrand was the best French president ever, followed by Charles de Gaulle (30 percent) and Jacques Chirac (12 percent).[189] Another poll by BVA four years later showed that 87% of French people regarded his presidency positively.[190]
Statues honouring de Gaulle have been erected
In 1990, President Mitterrand, de Gaulle's old political rival, presided over the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth. Mitterrand, who once wrote a vitriolic critique of him called the "Permanent Coup d'État", quoted a recent opinion poll, saying, "As General de Gaulle, he has entered the pantheon of great national heroes, where he ranks ahead of
A number of commentators have been critical of his failure to prevent the massacres after Algerian independence,[104] while others take the view that the struggle had been so long and savage that it was inevitable.[3] The Australian historian Brian Crozier wrote, "that he was able to part with Algeria without civil war was a great though negative achievement which in all probability would have been beyond the capacity of any other leader France possessed."[194]
De Gaulle was an excellent manipulator of the media, as seen in his shrewd use of television to persuade around 80% of Metropolitan France to approve the new constitution for the Fifth Republic. He afterwards enjoyed massive approval ratings, and once said that "every Frenchman is, has been or will be Gaullist".[195]
That de Gaulle did not necessarily reflect mainstream French public opinion with his veto was suggested by the decisive majority of French people who voted in favour of British membership when Pompidou called a referendum on the matter in 1972. His early influence in setting the parameters of the EEC can still be seen, most notably with the controversial Common Agricultural Policy.
Some writers take the view that Pompidou was a more progressive and influential leader than de Gaulle because, though also a Gaullist, he was less autocratic and more interested in social reforms.[104][196] Although he followed the main tenets of de Gaulle's foreign policy, he was keen to work towards warmer relations with the United States.
In 1968, shortly before leaving office, de Gaulle refused to devalue the Franc on grounds of national prestige, but upon taking over Pompidou reversed the decision almost immediately. During the financial crisis of 1968, France had to rely on American (and West German) financial aid to shore up the economy.[104]
Perry has written that the
events of 1968 illustrated the brittleness of de Gaulle's rule. That he was taken by surprise is an indictment of his rule; he was too remote from real life and had no interest in the conditions under which ordinary French people lived. Problems like inadequate housing and social services had been ignored. The French greeted the news of his departure with some relief as the feeling had grown that he had outlived his usefulness. Perhaps he clung onto power too long, perhaps he should have retired in 1965 when he was still popular.[104]
Brian Crozier said "the fame of de Gaulle outstrips his achievements, he chose to make repeated gestures of petulance and defiance that weakened the west without compensating advantages to France"[194]
While de Gaulle had many admirers, he was also one of the most hated and reviled men in modern French history.[198]
Memorials
A number of monuments have been built to commemorate de Gaulle. France's largest airport, located in Roissy, outside Paris, is named Charles de Gaulle Airport. France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is also named after him.
Honours and awards
French
- Légion d'honneur – 1945 (Officer – 1934; Knight – 1919)[199]
- Ordre de la Libération[200]
Grand-Croix of the Ordre national du Mérite – 1963[201]
Croix de guerre 1915[15]
Combatant's Cross
Medal for the War Wounded- 1914–1918 Inter-Allied Victory medal (France)
1914–1918 Commemorative war medal (France)
1939–1945 Commemorative war medal (France)
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Foreign
Silver Cross of Virtuti Militari of Poland (1920)[202]
Chief Commander of the US Legion of Merit (24 August 1945)- Order of the Dragon of Annam(last awarded 1945)
Knight Grand Cross decorated with Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (16 June 1959)
Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri of Thailand (11 October 1960)- Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden, 8 May 1963)[203]
- Order of Merit of Chile (October 1964)[204]
Knight of the Order of the Elephant (Denmark, 5 April 1965)[205]- Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (1962)[206]
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland with Collar (1962)[207]
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia
Grand Cross of the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol of Laos- Order of Boyacaof Colombia
Grand Cross of the Sharifian Order of Military Merit of Morocco
Grand Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
National Order of Merit of Ecuador
Grand Cordon of the Order of Military Merit of Brazil
National Order of Merit of Paraguay
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sun of Peru
Grand Collar and Medal of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil
Grand Collar of the Order of Pahlavi of Iran
Grand Cross of the Military Order of Ayacucho of Peru
Grand Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle of Mexico
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Two Rivers of Iraq
Collar of the Order of the Liberator of Venezuela
Collar of the National Order of the Condor of the Andes of Bolivia- Order of Umayyadof Syria
Grand Cross of the National Order of the Cedar of Lebanon
Member of the Order of the Benevolent Ruler of Nepal
Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium- Order of Saint-Charles of Monaco (5 October 1944)[208]
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Collar of the Order of Al-Hussein bin Ali (Jordan)
Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ of the Vatican- Order of Pius IXof the Vatican
Grand Commander of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece
Papal Lateran Cross of the Vatican
Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta of Poland
Commander of the Bavarian Order of Merit[209]
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Medals
- Medal of the Mexican Academy of Military Studies
- Medal of Rancagua of Chile
- Medal of Mexico
- Medal of the Legionnaires of Quebec
- Medal of the City of Valparaiso
- Medal of Honour of the Congress of Peru
- Iraqi medal
- Plaque and Medal of the City of Lima, Peru
- Royal Medal of Tunisia
- Medal of the City of New Orleans
- Pakistani medal
- Greek medal
- Order of the American Legion
- Medal of the College Joseph Celestine Mutis of Spain[210]
Works
French editions
- La Discorde Chez l'Ennemi (1924)
- Histoire des Troupes du Levant (1931) Written by Major de Gaulle and Major Yvon, with Staff Colonel de Mierry collaborating in the preparation of the final text.
- Le Fil de l'Épée (1932)
- Vers l'Armée de Métier (1934)
- La France et son Armée (1938)
- Trois Études (1945) (Rôle Historique des Places Fortes;[211] Mobilisation Economique à l'Étranger;[212] Comment Faire une Armée de Métier) followed by the Memorandum of 26 January 1940.
- Mémoires de Guerre
- Volume I – L'Appel 1940–1942 (1954)
- Volume II – L'Unité, 1942–1944 (1956)
- Volume III – Le Salut, 1944–1946 (1959)
- Mémoires d'Espoir
- Volume I – Le Renouveau 1958–1962 (1970)
- Discours et Messages
- Volume I – Pendant la Guerre 1940–1946 (1970)
- Volume II – Dans l'attente 1946–1958 (1970)
- Volume III – Avec le Renouveau 1958–1962 (1970)
- Volume IV – Pour l'Effort 1962–1965 (1970)
- Volume V – Vers le Terme 1966–1969
English translations
- The Enemy's House Divided (La Discorde chez l'ennemi). Tr. by Robert Eden. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2002.
- The Edge of the Sword (Le Fil de l'Épée). Tr. by Gerard Hopkins. Faber, London, 1960 Criterion Books, New York, 1960
- The Army of the Future (Vers l'Armée de Métier). Hutchinson, London-Melbourne, 1940. Lippincott, New York, 1940
- France and Her Army (La France et son Armée). Tr. by F. L. Dash. Hutchinson London, 1945. Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1945
- War Memoirs: Call to Honour, 1940–1942 (L'Appel). Tr. by Jonathan Griffin. Collins, London, 1955 (two volumes). Viking Press, New York, 1955.
- War Memoirs: Unity, 1942–1944 (L'Unité). Tr. by Richard Howard (narrative) and Joyce Murchie and Hamish Erskine (documents). Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1959 (two volumes). Simon & Schuster, New York, 1959 (two volumes).
- War Memoirs: Salvation, 1944–1946 (Le Salut). Tr. by Richard Howard (narrative) and Joyce Murchie and Hamish Erskine (documents). Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1960 (two volumes). Simon & Schuster, New York, 1960 (two volumes).
- Memoirs of Hope: Renewal, 1958–1962. Endeavour, 1962– (Le Renouveau) (L'Effort). Tr. by Terence Kilmartin. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971.
See also
- Foreign policy of Charles de Gaulle
- France's neocolonialism
- Gaullism
- Gaullist Party
- List of things named after Charles de Gaulle
Notes
- ^ Also known by other names.
References
- ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0
- ^ "1890: l'acte de naissance de Charles de Gaulle" [1890: Charles de Gaulle's birth certificate]. Lille Municipal Archives. 4 February 2016. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84737-392-2. Archivedfrom the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-00-211161-4. Archivedfrom the original on 21 September 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
- ^ a b Ledwidge p. 6
- ^ Frans Debrabandere: Woordenboek van de familienamen in België en Noord-Frankrijk, L.J. Veen, 2003.
- ^ a b c d e f g David Schoenbrun, The Three Lives of Charles de Gaulle (1966)
- ^ ISBN 978-0950259536.
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 13
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 9–10
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 14–15
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 16–17
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 16
- ^ Fenby writes that he did promote him to sergeant at this point, which does not tally with Lacouture and other more detailed accounts
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Chronologie 1909–1918". charles-de-gaulle.org. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 19
- ^ "Charles de Gaulle". Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 21
- ^ a b c d e f g h i See, e.g., "Charles de Gaulle". Time. 5 January 1959. Archived from the original on 12 January 2007.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 21–5
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 24–5
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 31
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 34
- ISBN 978-2-213-66087-5. Archivedfrom the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
- ^ a b Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Rebel, 1890–1944 (1990) pp. 42–54.
- ^ The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved (p. 64)
- ^ ISBN 9780674987210.
- ^ Ledwidge p. 24
- ^ "Rémy ROURE". Musée de l'Ordre de la Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
- ^ Cordier, Daniel. Jean Moulin; la République des catacombes.
- ^ The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved (pp. 62–67)
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 64
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 66–71, 213–5
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 71–2
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 77–86
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 80
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 84–7
- ^ "Chronologie 1921–1939". charles-de-gaulle.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 88
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 84
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 90–2
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 84–7, 213–5
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 92–3
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 99–100
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 99, 118
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 105, 119 – Lacouture gives the date of this promotion both as December 1932 (the date favoured by most accounts) and December 1933
- ^ a b c Lacouture 1991, p. 125
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 114–7, 131, 154.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 133–5.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 136.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 139–146.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 127–128, 143–144.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 144.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 127.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 147–148
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 149–150, 169
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 157–165, 213–215
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 149, 169
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 170
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 171
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 174–5
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 175
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 177
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 178
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, pp. 180–1
- ^ a b c Brad DeLong (29 May 2000). "Charles de Gaulle". University of California at Berkeley. Archived from the original on 7 January 2006.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 180–2
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 180–3, 213–5, in a list of acts of insubordination committed by de Gaulle prior to 18 June 1940, Lacouture mentions a demand on 25 May 1940 that he be given command of an extra two or three divisions to mount a stronger attack. This does not appear in the more detailed narrative and it is not clear whether it is a confusion of the events on 19 May.
- ^ Ledwidge pp. 50–52
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 180–3
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 187
- ^ "Présidence du conseil: ministres et sous-secrétaires d'Etat". gallica.bnf.fr. Government of the French Republic. 6 June 1940. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
- ^ "Cabinet Paul Reynaud". Assemblée Nationale Française. 2008. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
- ^ a b Lacouture 1991, p. 190
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 191
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 193. Weygand later disputed the accuracy of de Gaulle's account of this conversation, and remarked on its similarity to a dialogue by Pierre Corneille. Lacouture suggests that de Gaulle's account is consistent with other evidence of Weygand's beliefs at the time and is therefore, allowing perhaps for a little literary embellishment, broadly plausible.
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 194
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 195–196
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 198–200, 238
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 201
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 211–6
- ^ Lacouture 1991, pp. 221–223
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 208
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 226
- ^ a b "French Take Part in Air Raids". St. Petersburg Times. 3 August 1940. p. 1. Archived from the original on 16 October 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
- ^ Lacouture 1:243-4
- ^ Lacouture 1991, p. 261
- ^ from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
There was much support for the Vichy regime among French colonial personnel, with the exception of Guianese-born governor of Chad, Félix Éboué, who in September 1940 announced his switch of allegiance from Vichy to the Gaullist Free French movement based in London. Encouraged by this support for his fledgling movement, Charles de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October 1940 to announce the formation of an Empire Defense Council and to invite all French possessions loyal to Vichy to join it and continue the war against Germany; within two years, most did.
- from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-231-54864-9. Archivedfrom the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
At the same time, de Gaulle was only one man, and had no eminent political supporters. He therefore had to broaden his base. An order of October 27, 1940, created the Conseil de défense de l'Empire (Empire Defense Council), which included, in addition to de Gaulle, the governors of the territories who had rallied to the cause (Edgard de Larminat, Félix Éboué, Leclerc, Henri Sautot) military leaders (Georges Catroux and Émile Muselier), and three personalities from varied backgrounds: Father Georges Thierry Argenlieu, a friar and alumnus of the E'cole Navale; Rene' Cassin, a distinguished jurist and prominent representative of the veterans movement; and the military doctor Adolph Sice'.
- ^ a b c Keegan p. 298
- ^ ISBN 1101148721
- ISBN 0-385-49532-3.
- ^ "World War II: The Liberation of Paris". HistoryNet. 12 June 2006. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ a b Mondal, Jacques (1966) Purnell's History of the Second World War: No. 72 1966.
- ^ "Speech made by General de Gaulle at the Hotel de Ville in Paris on August 25th 1944". Fondation Charles de Gaulle. 2008. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008.
- ^ "Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French". HISTORY. Archived from the original on 22 December 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^ Kim Munholland, Rock of Contention, Free French and Americans at War in New Caledonia 1940–1945, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford, 2005, p. 190.
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- ^ a b c "Lion of Britain, Cross of Lorraine: Churchill and de Gaulle". winstonchurchill.org. 25 May 2010. Archived from the original on 21 May 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
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- ^ Robottom, John (1972) Modern Russia, McGraw-Hill
- ^ ISBN 0750604824
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De Gaulle did not invent the phrase; it was used by the writer Maurice Barrès
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- ^ Warlouzet, 'De Gaulle as a Father of Europe Archived 19 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine' in Contemporary European History, 2011
- ^ Charles Sowerwine, France since 1870: Culture, Society and the Making of the Republic (2009) pp. 296–316
- ^ Alexander Harrison, Challenging De Gaulle: The OAS and the Counterrevolution in Algeria, 1954–1962 (Praeger, 1989).
- ^ Martin Evans, Algeria: France's Undeclared War (2012) excerpt and text search Archived 16 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
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- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
- ^ Ledsom, Alex (25 June 2018). "How Charles de Gaulle Survived Over Thirty Assassination Attempts". Culture Trip. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
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- ^ "De Gaulle Challenge to Parliament – To Retire if Referendum not Approved – Call to Nation before Debate on Censure Motion". The Times. 5 October 1962.
- ^ "De Gaulle against the Politicians – Clear Issue for October Referendum – Assembly Election Likely after Solid Censure Vote". The Times. 6 October 1962.
- ^ ""Yes" Reply for Gen. De Gaulle – Over 60 p.c. of Valid Votes – President Likely to Keep Office". The Times. 29 October 1962.
- ^ Kolodziej, Edward A (1974). French International Policy under de Gaulle and Pompidou: The Politics of Grandeur. p. 618.
- ^ Macksey, Kenneth (1966) Purnell's History of the Second World War: No. 123. "The Liberation of Paris"
- ISBN 978-92-64-24549-5. Archivedfrom the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-313-32892-3.
- ^ "Marshal Juin Defended – General de Gaulle on Moral Issue". The Times. 8 April 1954.
- ^ "Weekend of Rejoicing in France". The Times. 15 February 1960.
- ^ Ledwidge p. 341
- ^ a b 1960: East-West summit in tatters after spy plane row Archived 23 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine. BBC.co.uk; accessed 7 June 2016.
- ^ Walter, Vernon A. (2007) [1974]. "General De Gaulle in Action: 1960 Summit Conference". Studies in Intelligence. 38 (5). Archived from the original on 27 September 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ Holland, Robert (1991) Fontana History of England – Britain & the World Role
- ^ Richards, Denis & Quick, Antony (1974) Twentieth Century Britain
- ^ "European NAvigator (ENA) – General de Gaulle's second veto". Archived from the original on 23 February 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
- ^ "France Ends Boycott of Common Market – No Winners or Losers after Midnight Agreement". The Times. 31 January 1966.
- ^ "De Gaulle and Europe". Fondation Charles de Gaulle. Archived from the original on 18 November 2006.
- ^ a b c d e Gosset, David (8 January 2009). "A Return to De Gaulle's 'Eternal China'". Greater China. Asia Times. Archived from the original on 19 January 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ "Allocution prononcée à la réunion populaire de Phnom-Penh, 1er septembre 1966" [Address by the President of the French Republic (General de Gaulle), Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 1 September 1966]. Fondation Charles de Gaulle. 2008. Archived from the original on 18 November 2008.
- ^ Gowland, David; Turner, Arthur: Reluctant Europeans: Britain and European Integration, 1945–1998 Archived 14 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Routledge, p. 166. Accessed on 31 October 2019.
- ^ "French Emphasis on Long-Term Issues". The Times. 7 June 1967.
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- ISBN 978-0-7391-1085-0.
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of the first eleven governments of the Fifth Republic, four contained no women whatsoever.
- ^ S2CID 144698270.
- ^ "Autocrat of the Grand Manner". The Times. 28 April 1969.
- ^ Crawley (p. 454) also writes that de Gaulle was undoubtedly using the term in his barrack-room style to mean 'shit in the bed'. De Gaulle had said it first in Bucharest while on an official visit from which he returned on 19 May 1968. Pompidou told the press that de Gaulle used the phrase after the cabinet meeting on 19 May.
- ^ "Dropping the Pilot". The Times. 11 July 1968.
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- ISBN 978-1-349-20089-4.
- ^ Mitterrand, le préféré des Français [archive], site de TF1-LCI, 2 janvier 2006.
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- ^ Ahmed Ben Bella, De Gaulle voyait plus loin, in L'Express, 26 October 1995.
- ISBN 978-1-84737-392-2. Archivedfrom the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ISBN 1412821274
- ^ a b De Gaulle: The Statesman. Brian Crozier (Methuen). 1974
- ^ ISBN 2-07-072021-7
- ^ Richards, Denis and Quick, Anthony (1974) 20th Century Britain
- ^ In fact, several of de Gaulle's predictions, such as his often-repeated belief during the early cold war period that a Third World War, with its "nuclear bombardments, famine, deportations" was not only ineluctable, but imminent, have not yet materialized. Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle, Seuil, vol. II, p. 357.
- S2CID 154467724.
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- ISBN 979-1-09-128903-0. Archivedfrom the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2016 – via google.be.
- ^ "Cérémonies officielles du cinquantenaire de l'ordre national du Mérite" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
- ^ "Virtuti Militari de Gaulle'a". Rzeczpospolita. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
- ^ Coat of arms Archived 13 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine. flickr.com
- ^ Archivo fotográfico: rescate visual de la historia de Carabineros de Chile (PDF). p. 66. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
- ^ Coat of Arms in Frederiksborg Castle
- ^ "Den kongelige norske Sanct Olavs Orden", Norges Statskalender for Aaret 1970 (in Norwegian), Oslo: Forlagt av H. Aschehoug & Co. (w. Nygaard), 1970, pp. 1240–1241 – via runeberg.org
- ^ "Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunnan suurristin ketjuineen ulkomaalaiset saajat". Ritarikunnat (in Finnish). 9 October 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2023.
- ^ "JOURNAL DE MONACO" (PDF). 5 October 1944.
- ^ "List of decorations". Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
- ^ "Décorations du Général de Gaulle, musée de l'Ordre de la Libération – Le blog de cbx41". Archived from the original on 10 November 2013.
- ^ An essay which he wrote in the mid 1920s.
- ^ His report produced as a staff officer in the early 1930s.
- Lacouture, Jean, vol. 1 De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944 (1984; English ed. 1991), 640 pp; vol. 2. De Gaulle: The Ruler 1945–1970 (1993), 700 pp. A standard scholarly biography.
- Ledwidge, Bernard (1982). De Gaulle. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-77952-0.
Further reading
Biographies
- Cogan, Charles. Charles de Gaulle: A Brief Biography with Documents. (1995). 243 pp.
- Fenby, Jonathan, The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved. (2011). Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781847394101
- Jackson, Julian, A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle (2018) 887pp.
- Shennan, Andrew (1993). De Gaulle 200 pp.
- Williams, Charles. The Last Great Frenchman: A Life of General De Gaulle (1997), 560pp. excerpt and text search
World War II
- Berthon, Simon. Allies at War: The Bitter Rivalry among Churchill, Roosevelt, and de Gaulle. (2001). 356 pp.
- ISBN 978-0-7858-2253-0. - Total pages: 238
- Danan, Yves Maxime, République française : capitale Alger (1940–1944), L'Harmattan, Paris, 2019.
- DePorte, Anton W. De Gaulle's foreign policy, 1944–1946 (1967)
- Funk, Arthur Layton. Charles de Gaulle: The Crucial Years, 1943–1944 (1959) online edition
- Keegan, John (1994) [1982] Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris .
- Kersaudy, Francois. Churchill and De Gaulle (2nd ed 1990) 482pp.
- La Feber, Walter. "Roosevelt, Churchill, and Indochina: 1942–45." American Historical Review (1975): 1277–1295. . JSTOR 1852060.
- Picknett, Lynn; Prince, Clive; Prior, Stephen (2005). Friendly fire: the secret war between the allies (2005 ed.). Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84018-996-4. - Total pages: 512
- Pratt, Julius W. "De Gaulle and the United States: How the Rift Began," History Teacher (1968) 1#4 pp. 5–15 . JSTOR 3054237.
- Rossi, Mario. "United States Military Authorities and Free France, 1942–1944," The Journal of Military History (1997) 61#1 pp. 49–64 . JSTOR 2953914.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders. (2005). 292 pp. chapter on de Gaulle
Politics
- Berstein, Serge, and Peter Morris. The Republic of de Gaulle 1958–1969 (The Cambridge History of Modern France) (2006) excerpt and text search
- Cameron, David R. and Hofferbert, Richard I. "Continuity and Change in Gaullism: the General's Legacy." American Journal of Political Science 1973 17(1): 77–98. JSTOR 2110475.
- Cogan, Charles G. "The Break-up: General de Gaulle's Separation from Power," Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 27, No. 1 (Jan. 1992), pp. 167–199, re: 1969 . JSTOR 260783.
- Diamond, Robert A. France under de Gaulle (Facts on File, 1970), highly detailed chronology 1958–1969. 319pp
- Furniss, Edgar J. Jr. De Gaulle and the French Army. (1964)
- Gough, Hugh and Horne, John, eds. De Gaulle and Twentieth-Century France. (1994). 158 pp. essays by experts
- Hauss, Charles. Politics in Gaullist France: Coping with Chaos (1991) online edition Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Hoffmann, Stanley. Decline or Renewal? France since the 1930s (1974) online edition Archived 3 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Jackson, Julian. "General de Gaulle and His Enemies: Anti-Gaullism in France Since 1940," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th Ser., Vol. 9 (1999), pp. 43–65 . JSTOR 3679392.
- Merom, Gil. "A 'Grand Design'? Charles de Gaulle and the End of the Algerian War," Armed Forces & Society(1999) 25#2 pp: 267–287 online
- Nester, William R. De Gaulle's Legacy: The Art of Power in France's Fifth Republic (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
- Northcutt, Wayne. Historical Dictionary of the French Fourth and Fifth Republics, 1946–1991 (1992)
- Pierce, Roy, "De Gaulle and the RPF—A Post-Mortem," The Journal of Politics Vol. 16, No. 1 (Feb. 1954), pp. 96–119 . JSTOR 2126340.
- Rioux, Jean-Pierre, and Godfrey Rogers. The Fourth Republic, 1944–1958 (The Cambridge History of Modern France) (1989)
- Shepard, Todd. The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France. (2006). 288 pp.
- Williams, Philip M. and Martin Harrison. De Gaulle's Republic (1965) online edition Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
Foreign policy
- Bozo, Frédéric. Two Strategies for Europe: De Gaulle, the United States and the Atlantic Alliance (2000)
- Gordon, Philip H. A Certain Idea of France: French Security Policy and the Gaullist Legacy (1993) online edition Archived 21 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- Grosser, Alfred. French foreign policy under De Gaulle (Greenwood Press, 1977)
- Hoffmann, Stanley. "The Foreign Policy of Charles de Gaulle." in The Diplomats, 1939–1979 (Princeton University Press, 2019) pp. 228–254. online
- Kolodziej, Edward A. French International Policy under de Gaulle and Pompidou: The Politics of Grandeur (1974) online edition Archived 28 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Kulski, W. W. De Gaulle and the World: The Foreign Policy of the Fifth French Republic (1966) online free to borrow
- Logevall, Fredrik. "De Gaulle, Neutralization, and American Involvement in Vietnam, 1963–1964," Pacific Historical Review 61#1 (Feb. 1992), pp. 69–102 . JSTOR 3640789.
- Mahan, E. Kennedy, De Gaulle and Western Europe. (2002). 229 pp.
- Mangold, Peter. The Almost Impossible Ally: Harold Macmillan and Charles de Gaulle. (2006). 275 pp. IB Tauris, London, ISBN 978-1-85043-800-7
- Martin, Garret Joseph. General de Gaulle's Cold War: Challenging American Hegemony, 1963–1968 (Berghahn Books; 2013) 272 pages
- Moravcsik, Andrew. "Charles de Gaulle and Europe: The New Revisionism." Journal of Cold War Studies (2012) 14#1 pp: 53–77.
- Nuenlist, Christian. Globalizing de Gaulle: International Perspectives on French Foreign Policies, 1958–1969 (2010)
- Newhouse, John. De Gaulle and the Anglo-Saxons (New York: Viking Press, 1970)
- Paxton, Robert O. and Wahl, Nicholas, eds. De Gaulle and the United States: A Centennial Reassessment. (1994). 433 pp.
- White, Dorothy Shipley. Black Africa and de Gaulle: From the French Empire to Independence. (1979). 314 pp.
Ideas and memory
- Cerny, Philip G. The Politics of Grandeur: Ideological Aspects of de Gaulle's Foreign Policy. (1980). 319 pp.
- Clague, Monique. "Conceptions of Leadership: Charles de Gaulle and Max Weber," Political Theory (1975) 3#4 pp. 423–440. JSTOR 190838.
- Converse, Philip E., et al. De Gaulle and Eisenhower: The public image of the victorious general (1961), Statistical analysis of public opinion polls in US and France
- Hazareesingh, Sudhir. In the Shadow of the General: Modern France and the Myth of De Gaulle (2012) online review
- Hoffmann, Stanley. "The Hero as History: De Gaulle's War Memoirs" in Hoffman Decline or Renewal? France since the 1930s (1974) pp 187–201 online edition Archived 4 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Johnson, Douglas. "The Political Principles of General de Gaulle," International Affairs (1965) 41#4 pp. 650–662 . JSTOR 2610718.
- Mahoney, Daniel J. De Gaulle: Statesmanship, Grandeur, and Modern Democracy. (1996). 188 pp. intellectual history
- Mahoney, Daniel J. "A 'Man of Character': The Statesmanship of Charles de Gaulle," Polity (1994) 27#1 pp. 157–173 . JSTOR 3235090.
- Morrisey, Will. "Reflections on De Gaulle: Political Founding in Modernity." (2002). 266 pp. intellectual history
- Pedley, Alan. As Mighty as the Sword: A Study of the Writings of Charles de Gaulle (1996) 226pp
External links
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
- Fondation Charles-de-Gaulle
- Works by or about Charles de Gaulle at Internet Archive
- Mémorial Charles de Gaulle
- Newspaper clippings about Charles de Gaulle in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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