De Gaulle avant de Gaulle (French Edition)

In social policy, legislation was introduced [ by whom? De Gaulle's policy was to postpone elections as long as 2. In mid-September, he embarked upon a tour of major provincial cities to increase his public profile and to help cement his position. Raymond Aubrac said that the General showed himself to be ill-at-ease at social functions; in Marseille and Lyon he became irate when he had to sit next to former Resistance leaders and also voiced his distaste for the rowdy, libidinous behavior of French youths during the Maquisard parades which preceded his speech.

During the tour, de Gaulle showed his customary lack of concern for his own safety by mixing with the crowds and thus making himself an easy target for an assassin. Although he was naturally shy, the good use of amplification and patriotic music enabled him to deliver his message that though all of France was fragmented and suffering, together they would rise again. During every speech he would stop halfway through to invite the crowd to join him in singing La Marseillaise , before continuing and finishing by raising his hands in the air and crying "Vive la France!

As the war entered the final stages, the nation was forced to confront the reality of how many of its people had behaved under German rule. In France, collaborators were more severely punished than in most other occupied countries. Women who got this treatment were lucky as many others were simply attacked by lynch mobs. With so many of their former members having been hunted down and killed by the Nazis and paramilitary Milice, the Partisans had already summarily executed an estimated 4, people, [] and the Communists in particular continued to press for severe action against collaborators.

In Paris alone, over , people were at some time detained on suspicion of collaboration, although most were later released. Knowing that he would need to reprieve many of the 'economic collaborators'—such as police and civil servants who held minor roles under Vichy in order to keep the country running as normally as possible—he assumed, as head of state, the right to commute death sentences. De Gaulle commuted of the 1, capital sentences submitted before him, including all those involving 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. Later, there was the question of what to do with the former Vichy leaders when they were finally returned to France. Three Vichy leaders were executed. Joseph Darnand , who became an SS officer and led the Milice paramilitaries who hunted down members of the Resistance, was executed in October Fernand de Brinon , the third-ranking Vichy official, was found guilty of war crimes and executed in April The two trials of the most infamous collaborator of all, Pierre Laval , who was heavily implicated in the murder of Jews, were widely criticised as being unfair for depriving him of the opportunity to properly defend himself, although Laval antagonized the court throughout with his bizarre behavior.

He was found guilty of treason in May and de Gaulle was adamant that there would be no commuting the death sentence, saying that Laval's execution was "an indispensable symbolic gesture required for reasons of state". 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. The winter of —45 was especially difficult for most of the population. Inflation showed no sign of slowing down and food shortages were severe.

The prime minister and the other Gaullists were forced to try to balance the desires of ordinary people and public servants for a return to normal life with pressure from Bidault's MRP and the Communists for the large scale nationalisation programme and other social changes that formed the main tenets of the CNR Charter. At the end of the coal industry and other energy companies were nationalised, followed shortly afterwards by major banks and finance houses, the merchant navy, the main aircraft manufacturers, airlines and a number of major private enterprises such as the Renault car company at Boulogne-Billancourt , whose owner had been implicated as a collaborator and accused of having made huge profits working for the Nazis.

At de Gaulle's request, the newspaper Le Monde was founded in December to provide France with a quality daily journal similar to those in other countries. Le Monde took over the premises and facilities of the older Le Temps , whose independence and reputation had been badly compromised during the Vichy years.

During this period there were a number of minor disagreements between the French and the other Allies. The British ambassador to France Duff Cooper said that de Gaulle seemed to seek out real or imagined insults to take offence at whatever possible. In late October he complained that the Allies were failing to adequately arm and equip the new French army and instructed Bidault to use the French veto at the European Council. On Armistice Day in , Winston Churchill made his first visit to France since the liberation and received a good reception in Paris where he laid a wreath to Georges Clemenceau.

The occasion also marked the first official appearance of de Gaulle's wife Yvonne, but the visit was less friendly than it appeared. De Gaulle had instructed that there be no excessive displays of public affection towards Churchill and no official awards without his prior agreement. When crowds cheered Churchill during a parade down the Elysee, de Gaulle was heard to remark, "Fools and cretins! Look at the rabble cheering the old bandit". With the Russian forces making more rapid advances into German-held territory than the Allies, there was a sudden public realisation that the Soviet Union was about to dominate large parts of eastern Europe.

In fact, at the Cairo and Tehran Conferences in Britain and America had already agreed to allow Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to fall under the Soviet sphere of influence after the war, with shared influence in Yugoslavia. De Gaulle and his Foreign Minister Bidault stated that they were not in favour of a 'Western Bloc' that would be separate from the rest of Europe, and hoped that a resurgent France might be able to act as a 'third force' in Europe to temper the ambitions of the two emerging superpowers, America and Soviet Union.

In his memoirs, de Gaulle devoted 24 pages to his visit to the Soviet Union, but a number of writers make the point that his version of events differs significantly from that of the Soviets, of foreign news correspondents, and with their own eye-witness accounts.

De Gaulle wanted access to German coal in the Ruhr as reparations after the war, the left bank of the Rhine to be incorporated into French territory, and for the Oder-Neisse line in Poland to become Germany's official eastern border. De Gaulle began by requesting that France enter into a treaty with the Soviet Union on this basis, but Stalin, who remained in constant contact with Churchill throughout the visit, said that it would be impossible to make such an agreement without the consent of Britain and America.

He suggested that it might be possible to add France's name to the existing Anglo-Soviet Agreement if they agreed to recognise the Soviet-backed provisional Polish government known as the Lublin Committee as rightful rulers of Poland, but de Gaulle refused on the grounds that this would be 'un-French', as it would mean it being a junior partner in an alliance. Though the treaty which was eventually signed by Bidault and Molotov carried symbolic importance in that it enabled de Gaulle to demonstrate that he was recognised as the official head of state and show that France's voice was being heard abroad, it was of little relevance to Stalin due to France's lack of real political and military power; it did not affect the outcome of the post-war settlement.

Stalin later commented that like Churchill and Roosevelt, he found de Gaulle to be awkward and stubborn and believed that he was 'not a complicated person' by which he meant that he was an old-style nationalist. At the end of French forces continued to advance as part of the American armies, but during the Ardennes Offensive there was a dispute over Eisenhower's order to French troops to evacuate Strasbourg , which had just been liberated so as to straighten the defensive line against the German counterattack.

By early it was clear that the price controls which had been introduced to control inflation had only served to boost the black market and prices continued to move ever upwards. By this time the army had swelled to over 1. 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. 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 the American president wired both Stalin and Churchill to say that de Gaulle's presence would "merely introduce a complicating and undesirable factor". At the Yalta Conference in February , 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.

On his way back from Yalta, Roosevelt asked de Gaulle to meet him in Algiers for talks. The General refused, believing that there was nothing more to be said, and for this he received a rebuke from Georges Bidault and from the French press, and a severely angered Roosevelt criticised de Gaulle to Congress. Soon after, on 12 April , Roosevelt died, and despite their uneasy relationship de Gaulle declared a week of mourning in France and forwarded an emotional and conciliatory letter to the new American president, Harry S. Truman , in which he said of Roosevelt, "all of France loved him".

De Gaulle's relationship with Truman was to prove just as difficult as it had been with Roosevelt. With Allied forces advancing deep into Germany, another serious situation developed between American and French forces in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe , when French soldiers were ordered to transfer the occupation zones to US troops. Wishing to retain as much German territory in French hands as possible, de Gaulle ordered his troops, who were using American weapons and ammunition, to resist, and an armed confrontation seemed imminent.

De Gaulle never forgave Truman and hinted he would work closely with Stalin, leading Truman to tell his staff, "I don't like the son of a bitch. The first visit by de Gaulle to Truman in the U. Truman told his visitor that it was time that the French got rid of the Communist influence from its government, to which de Gaulle replied that this was France's own business. In May the German armies surrendered to the Americans and British at Rheims, and a separate armistice was signed with France in Berlin. However, among the vehicles that took part was an ambulance from the Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit , staffed by French doctors and British nurses.

A number of French troops returned their medals in protest and Mary wrote, "it is a pitiful business when a great man suddenly becomes small. 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 Val d'Aoste. The French commander threatened to open fire on American troops if they tried to stop them, and an irate Truman ordered the immediate end to all arms shipments to France.

Truman sent de Gaulle an angry letter saying that he found it unbelievable that the French could threaten to attack American troops after they had done so much to liberate France. A dispute with Britain over control of Syria and Lebanon quickly developed into an unpleasant diplomatic incident that demonstrated France's weaknesses. In May, de Gaulle sent General Beynet to establish an air base in Syria and a naval base in Lebanon, provoking an outbreak of nationalism in which some French nationals were attacked and killed. On 20 May, French artillery and warplanes fired on demonstrators in Damascus.

After several days, upwards of Syrians lay dead. Churchill's relationship with de Gaulle was now at rock bottom. In January he told a colleague that he believed that de Gaulle was "a great danger to peace and for Great Britain. After five years of experience, I am convinced that he is the worst enemy of France in her troubles I am sure that in the long run no understanding will be reached with General de Gaulle". On 31 May, Churchill told de Gaulle "immediately to order French troops to cease fire and withdraw to their barracks". British forces moved in and forced the French to withdraw from the city; they were then escorted and confined to barracks.

The secretary of the Arab League Edward Atiyah said, "France put all her cards and two rusty pistols on the table". That cannot be forgotten". At the Potsdam Conference in July, to which de Gaulle was not invited, a decision was made to divide Vietnam, which had been a French colony for over a hundred years, into British and Chinese spheres of influence.

However, the resistance leaders in Indo-China proclaimed the freedom and independence of Vietnam, and a civil war broke out that lasted until France was defeated in Since the liberation, the only parliament in France had been an enlarged version of the Algiers Consultative Assembly, and at last, in October , 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, [17] 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. In the election , the second option was approved by 13 million of the 21 million voters. On 13 November , 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 once more 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 of France.

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 of the key portfolios.

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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". 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 by threatening to withdraw his personal prestige which he insisted was what alone kept the ruling coalition together.

Barely two months after forming the new government, de Gaulle abruptly resigned on 20 January 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. With the war finally over, the initial period of crisis had passed.

Although there were still shortages, particularly of bread, France was now on the road to recovery, 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". After monopolizing French politics for six years, Charles de Gaulle suddenly dropped out of sight, and returned to his home to write his war memoirs. De Gaulle had told Pierre Bertaux in 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".

During this period of formal retirement, however, de Gaulle maintained regular contact with past political lieutenants from wartime and RPF days, including sympathizers involved in political developments in French Algeria, becoming "perhaps the best-informed man in France". Despite the new party's taking 40 percent of the vote in local elections and seats in , lacking its own press and access to television, its support ebbed away. In May , he withdrew again from active politics, [17] though the RPF lingered until September As with all colonial powers France began to lose its overseas possessions amid the surge of nationalism.

French Indochina now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia , colonised by France during the midth century, had been lost to the Japanese after the defeat of De Gaulle had intended to hold on to France's Indochina colony, ordering the parachuting of French agents and arms into Indochina in late and early with orders to attack the Japanese as American troops hit the beaches.

The Charles de Gaulle memorial at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises

It was largely funded by the United States and grew increasingly unpopular, especially after the stunning defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. 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 and the Fourth Republic had 24 separate ministries. Frustrated by the endless divisiveness, de Gaulle famously asked "How can you govern a country which has varieties of cheese? The Fourth Republic was wracked by political instability, failures in Indochina , and inability to resolve the Algerian question.

On 13 May , 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 Arab majority for Algerian independence. General Raoul Salan , Commander-in-Chief in Algeria, announced on radio that he was assuming provisional power, and appealed for confidence in himself. At a 19 May press conference, de Gaulle asserted again that he was at the disposal of the country.

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As a journalist expressed the concerns of some who feared that he would violate civil liberties, de Gaulle retorted vehemently: 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? 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". The crisis deepened as French paratroops from Algeria seized Corsica and a landing near Paris was discussed Operation Resurrection. 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.

Another condition was that he be granted extraordinary powers for a period of six months. De Gaulle remained intent on replacing the weak constitution of the Fourth Republic. He is sometimes described as the author of the new constitution , as he commissioned it and was responsible for its overall framework. On 1 June , de Gaulle became Prime Minister and was given emergency powers for six months by the National Assembly , [] fulfilling his desire for parliamentary legitimacy.

On 28 September , a referendum took place and The colonies Algeria was officially a part of France, not a colony were given the choice between immediate independence and the new constitution. All African colonies voted for the new constitution and the replacement of the French Union by the French Community , except Guinea , which thus became the first French African colony to gain independence and immediately lost all French assistance.

De Gaulle oversaw tough economic measures to revitalise the country, including the issuing of a new franc worth old francs. On 23 November , in a speech in Strasbourg , de Gaulle announced his vision for Europe:. His expression, "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals", has often been cited throughout the history of European integration. It became, for the next ten years, a favourite political rallying cry of de Gaulle's.

His vision stood in contrast to the Atlanticism of the United States and Britain, preferring instead a Europe that would act as a third pole between the United States and the Soviet Union. As the last chief of government of the Fourth Republic, de Gaulle made sure that the Treaty of Rome creating the European Economic Community was fully implemented, and that the British project of Free Trade Area was rejected, to the extent that he was sometimes considered as a "Father of Europe" [].

Upon becoming president, de Gaulle was faced with the urgent task of finding a way to bring to an end the bloody and divisive war in Algeria. He had immediately visited Algeria and declared, Je vous ai compris —'I have understood you', and each competing interest had wished to believe it was them that he had understood. The settlers assumed he supported them, and would be stunned when he did not. In Paris, the left wanted independence for Algeria. 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. He faced uprisings in Algeria by the pied-noirs and the French armed forces. On assuming the prime minister role in June he immediately went to Algeria, and neutralised the army there, with its , soldiers. The Algiers Committee of Public Safety was loud in its demands on behalf of the settlers, but de Gaulle made more visits and sidestepped them.

For the long term he devised a plan to modernize Algeria's traditional economy, deescalated the war, and offered Algeria self-determination in A pied-noir revolt in failed, while another attempted coup failed in April French voters approved his course in a referendum on Algerian self-determination.

De Gaulle arranged a cease-fire in Algeria with the March Evian Accords , legitimated by another referendum a month later. It gave victory to the FLN, which came to power and declared independence. The long crisis was over. France recognised Algerian independence on 3 July , while a blanket amnesty law was belatedly voted in , covering all crimes committed by the French army during the war. In just a few months in , , Pied-Noirs left the country. After 5 July, the exodus accelerated in the wake of the French deaths during the Oran massacre of De Gaulle commented "Ils tirent comme des cochons" "They shoot like pigs".

In September , de Gaulle sought a constitutional amendment to allow the president to be directly elected by the people and issued another referendum to this end. After a motion of censure voted by the parliament on 4 October , de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and held new elections. De Gaulle's proposal to change the election procedure for the French presidency was approved at the referendum on 28 October by more than three-fifths of voters despite a broad "coalition of no" formed by most of the parties, opposed to a presidential regime.

Thereafter the president was to be elected by direct universal suffrage for the first time since Louis Napoleon in 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" politique de grandeur. In the immediate post-war years France was in poor shape; [] wages remained at around half prewar levels, the winter of — did extensive damage to crops, leading to a reduction in the bread ration, hunger and disease remained rife and the black market continued to flourish.

Germany was in an even worse position, but after things began to improve dramatically with the introduction of Marshall Aid —large scale American financial assistance given to help rebuild European economies and infrastructure. This laid the foundations of a meticulously planned program of investments in energy, transport and heavy industry, overseen by the government of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. In the context of a population boom unseen in France since the 18th century, the government intervened heavily in the economy, using dirigisme —a unique combination of free-market and state-directed economy—with indicative five-year plans as its main tool.

This was followed by a rapid transformation and expansion of the French economy. High-profile projects, mostly but not always financially successful, were launched: Aided by these projects, the French economy recorded growth rates unrivalled since the 19th century. This period is still remembered in France with some nostalgia as the peak of the Trente Glorieuses "Thirty Glorious Years" of economic growth between and In , de Gaulle decreed a law that obliged all firms over certain sizes to distribute a small portion of their profits to their employees.

By , as a result of this measure, French employees received an average of francs per head, equivalent to 3. During his first tenure as president, de Gaulle became enthusiastic about the possibilities of nuclear power. However, partly due to communist influences in government opposed to proliferation, research stalled and France was excluded from American, British and Canadian nuclear efforts.

By October , the United Kingdom had become the third country—after the United States and the Soviet Union—to independently test and develop nuclear weapons.

This gave Britain the capability to launch a nuclear strike via its Vulcan bomber force and they began developing a ballistic missile program known as Blue Streak. As early as April while out of power, de Gaulle argued that France must have its own nuclear arsenal; at the time nuclear weapons were seen as a national status symbol and a way of maintaining international prestige with a place at the 'top table' of the United Nations. France's independent Force de Frappe strike force came into being soon after de Gaulle's election with his authorization for the first nuclear test.

With the cancellation of Blue Streak, the US agreed to supply Britain with its Skybolt and later Polaris weapons systems, and in the two nations signed the Mutual Defence Agreement forging close links which have seen the US and UK cooperate on nuclear security matters ever since. Although at the time it was still a full member of NATO, France proceeded to develop its own independent nuclear technologies—this would enable it to become a partner in any reprisals and would give it a voice in matters of atomic control.

After six years of effort, on 13 February France became the world's fourth nuclear power when a high-powered nuclear device was exploded in the Sahara some miles south-south-west of Algiers. France continued to carry out tests at the Algerian site until , under an agreement with the newly independent Algeria. It was stated that 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. With the onset of the Cold War and the perceived threat of invasion from the Soviet Union and the countries of the eastern bloc , the United States, Canada and a number of western European countries set up the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO to co-ordinate a military response to any possible attack. France played a key role during the early days of the organisation, providing a large military contingent and agreeing—after much soul-searching—to the participation of West German forces.

But after his election in Charles de Gaulle took the view that the organisation was too dominated by the US and UK, and that America would not fulfill its promise to defend Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion. De Gaulle demanded political parity with Britain and America in NATO, and for its geographic coverage to be extended to include French territories abroad, including Algeria, then experiencing civil war.

Charles de Gaulle

De Gaulle told Eisenhower: I will do everything I can to be helpful without being openly partisan. Lieutenant General Vernon A. Walters wrote that after Khrushchev left, "De Gaulle came over to Eisenhower and took him by the arm. He took me also by the elbow and, taking us a little apart, he said to Eisenhower, 'I do not know what Khrushchev is going to do, nor what is going to happen, but whatever he does, I want you to know that I am with you to the end.

General Walters was struck by de Gaulle's "unconditional support" of the United States during that "crucial time". In , de Gaulle visited the Soviet Union, where he hoped to establish France as an alternative influence in the Cold War. De Gaulle always viewed Communism as a passing phenomenon, and never used the term 'Soviet Union', always calling it Russia. In his view, Russian national interests rather than Communist ideology determined the decision-making in the Kremlin.

Later, he proclaimed a new alliance between the nations, but although Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin later visited Paris, the Soviets clearly did not consider France a superpower and knew that they would remain dependent on the NATO alliance in the event of a war. De Gaulle, haunted by the memories of , wanted France to remain the master of the decisions affecting it, unlike in the s when it had to follow in step with its British ally. He also ordered all foreign military personnel to leave France within a year.

France, experiencing the disintegration of its colonial empire and severe problems in Algeria, turned towards Europe after Suez Crisis , and to West Germany in particular. One of the conditions of Marshall Aid was that the nations' leaders must co-ordinate economic efforts and pool the supply of raw materials.

By far the most critical commodities in driving growth were coal and steel. France assumed it would receive large amounts of high-quality German coal from the Ruhr as reparations for the war, but the US refused to allow this, fearing a repetition of the bitterness after the Treaty of Versailles which partly caused World War II. Under the inspiration of the French statesmen Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman , together with the German leader Konrad Adenauer , the rift between the two nations had begun to heal and along with Italy and the Benelux countries, they formed the European Coal and Steel Community , which following the Treaty of Rome of became the European Economic Community , also known as the Common Market, launched soon before de Gaulle's return to power.

De Gaulle had not been instrumental in setting up the new organization and, from the start, he opposed efforts by fellow EEC member countries to move toward some form of political integration that, in de Gaulle's thinking, would impinge on the sovereignty of France, both internally and externally. To counter those supranational tendencies that he disparaged, [] he put forward in the so-called Fouchet Plan that maintained all decision-making powers in the hands of governments, reducing the projected European parliamentary assembly to a mere consultative assembly.

As expected, the plan was rejected by France's partners. In July de Gaulle provoked a major six-month crisis when he ordered the boycott of EEC institutions see Empty chair crisis below until his demands — the withdrawal of a European Commission proposal to reinforce the community institutions to the detriment of national sovereignty, and the acceptance of France's proposal regarding the financing of the newly established Common Agricultural Policy CAP — were met with the Luxembourg compromise.

De Gaulle, who in spite of recent history admired Germany and spoke excellent German, [] as well as English, [] established a good relationship with the aging West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer—culminating in the Elysee Treaty in —and in the first few years of the Common Market, France's industrial exports to the other five members tripled and its farm export almost quadrupled. The franc became a solid, stable currency for the first time in half a century, and the economy mostly boomed.

Adenauer however, all too aware of the importance of American support in Europe, gently distanced himself from the general's more extreme ideas, wanting no suggestion that any new European community would in any sense challenge or set itself at odds with the US In Adenauer's eyes, the support of the US was more important than any question of European prestige. Great Britain initially declined to join the Common Market, preferring to remain with another organisation known as the European Free Trade Area , mostly consisting of the northern European countries and Portugal.

De Gaulle vetoed the British application to join the European Economic Community EEC in , famously uttering the single word 'non' into the television cameras at the critical moment, a statement used to sum up French opposition towards Britain for many years afterwards. He later complained privately that "all our plans are in tatters". American President John F. Kennedy urged de Gaulle to accept the United Kingdom in the EEC, stating that a Europe without Great Britain would create a situation in which the United States were bearing the enormous costs of Europe's protection without any voice. British Prime Minister Churchill once said to him that if he had the choice between France and the United States, he would always choose the United States.

As it appears that Churchill's successor, Harold Macmillan , prioritised the rebuilding of the Anglo-American " Special Relationship ", with the recent American agreement to supply Britain with the Skybolt nuclear missile, it persuaded de Gaulle that the United Kingdom lacked the necessary political will to adhere to his bid for a West European strategic independence from the United States. In addition, he demanded that the United Kingdom accept all the conditions laid down by the six existing members of the EEC Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and revoke its commitments to countries within its own free trade area which France had not done with its own.

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He supported a deepening and an acceleration of Common Market integration rather than an expansion. However, in this latter respect, a detailed study of the formative years of the EEC argues that the defence of French economic interests, especially in agriculture, in fact played a more dominant role in determining de Gaulle's stance towards British entry than the various political and foreign policy considerations that have often been cited.

Dean Acheson believed that Britain made a grave error in not signing up to the European idea right from the start, and that they continued to suffer the political consequences for at least two decades afterwards. However he also stated his belief that de Gaulle used the 'Common Market' as it was then termed as an "exclusionary device to direct European trade towards the interest of France and against that of the United States, Britain and other countries. Claiming continental European solidarity, de Gaulle again rejected British entry when they next applied to join the community in December under the Labour leadership of Harold Wilson.

During negotiations, de Gaulle chided Britain for relying too much on the Americans, saying that sooner or later they would always do what was in their best interests. Wilson said he then gently raised the spectre of the threat of a newly powerful Germany as a result of the EEC, which de Gaulle agreed was a risk. In January , France was the first among the Western powers to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China PRC , which was established in and which was isolated on the international scene. France established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China — the first step towards formal recognition without first severing links with the Republic of China Taiwan , led by Chiang Kai-shek.

Hitherto the PRC had insisted that all nations abide by a "one China" condition, and at first it was unclear how the matter would be settled. As part of a European tour, Nixon visited France in De Gaulle is famously known for calling the UN the pejorative " le Machin " [] "the thingamajig". During the autumn of , de Gaulle embarked on a grueling 20,mile trek across Latin America despite being a month away from his 75th birthday, a recent operation for prostate cancer , and concerns over security.

He had visited Mexico the previous year and spoke, in Spanish, to the Mexican people on the eve of their celebrations of their independence at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. During his new day visit, he was again keen to gain both cultural and economic influence. Yet France could provide no investment or aid to match that from Washington. In the Bretton Woods system put in place in , US dollars were convertible to gold. In France, it was called " America's exorbitant privilege " [] as it resulted in an "asymmetric financial system" where foreigners "see themselves supporting American living standards and subsidizing American multinationals".

As American economist Barry Eichengreen summarized: He sent the French Navy across the Atlantic to pick up the French reserve of gold and was followed by several countries. This was meant to be a temporary measure but the dollar became permanently a floating fiat money and in October , the US government officially changed the definition of the dollar; references to gold were removed from statutes.

In December , de Gaulle returned as president for a second seven-year term. Ball later sent a page memorandum to Johnson critiquing Johnson's current Vietnam policy in October De Gaulle later visited Guadeloupe for two days, in the aftermath of Hurricane Inez , bringing aid which totaled billions of francs. It involved the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy , but almost more importantly the use of qualified majority voting in the EC as opposed to unanimity.

In June , after France and the other five members could not agree, de Gaulle withdrew France's representatives from the EC. Their absence left the organisation essentially unable to run its affairs until the Luxembourg compromise was reached in January With tension rising in the Middle East in , de Gaulle on 2 June declared an arms embargo against Israel, just three days before the outbreak of the Six-Day War.

This, however, did not affect spare parts for the French military hardware with which the Israeli armed forces were equipped. This was an abrupt change in policy. Though paid for, their transfer to Israel was now blocked by de Gaulle's government. But they were smuggled out in an operation that drew further denunciations from the French government. The last boats took to the sea in December , directly after a major deal between France and now-independent Algeria exchanging French armaments for Algerian oil.

Under de Gaulle, following the independence of Algeria, France embarked on foreign policy more favorable to the Arab side. President de Gaulle's position in at the time of the Six-Day War played a part in France's new-found popularity in the Arab world. In a televised news conference on 27 November , de Gaulle described the Jewish people as "this elite people, sure of themselves and domineering".

In his letter to David Ben-Gurion dated 9 January , he explained that he was convinced that Israel had ignored his warnings and overstepped the bounds of moderation by taking possession of Jerusalem, and Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian territory by force of arms. He felt Israel had exercised repression and expulsions during the occupation and that it amounted to annexation. He said that provided Israel withdrew its forces, it appeared that it might be possible to reach a solution through the UN framework which could include assurances of a dignified and fair future for refugees and minorities in the Middle East, recognition from Israel's neighbours, and freedom of navigation through the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez Canal.

On 6 July the first shots in the Nigerian Civil War were fired, marking the start of a conflict that lasted until January Under de Gaulle's leadership, France embarked on a period of interference outside the traditional French zone of influence. A policy geared toward the break-up of Nigeria put Britain and France into opposing camps. Relations between France and Nigeria had been under strain since the third French nuclear explosion in the Sahara in December From August , when its embargo was lifted, France provided limited and covert support to the breakaway province.

Although French arms helped to keep Biafra in action for the final 15 months of the civil war, its involvement was seen as insufficient and counterproductive. The Biafran chief of staff stated that the French "did more harm than good by raising false hopes and by providing the British with an excuse to reinforce Nigeria. In July , de Gaulle visited Canada, which was celebrating its centenary with a world fair in Montreal, Expo Et vive la France! Long live French Canada, and long live France! Pearson , stated that "Canadians do not need to be liberated". The speech offended many English-speaking Canadians and was heavily criticized in France as well, [] and led to a significant diplomatic rift between the two countries.

The event however was seen as a watershed moment by the Quebec sovereignty movement , [] and is still a significant milestone of Quebec's history to the eyes of most Quebecers. In the following year, de Gaulle visited Brittany , where he declaimed a poem written by his uncle also called Charles de Gaulle in the Breton language.

The speech followed a series of crackdowns on Breton nationalism. De Gaulle was accused of hypocrisy, on the one hand supporting a "free" Quebec because of linguistic and ethnic differences from other Canadians, while on the other hand suppressing a regional and ethnic nationalist movement in Brittany. General de Gaulle paid an official visit to Poland on 6 September and spent an entire week there.

He met with crowds of people on the streets and shouted in Polish "Long live Poland! Our dear, noble and brave Poland! Without discussion, de Gaulle announced that France officially recognized the new Polish western border established in 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. The mass demonstrations and strikes in France in May 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 disappeared without notifying Prime Minister Pompidou or anyone else in the government, stunning the country. He fled to Baden-Baden in Germany to meet with General Massu, then head of the French military there, to discuss possible army intervention against the protesters.

De Gaulle returned to France after being assured of the military's support, in return for which De Gaulle agreed to amnesty for the coup plotters and OAS members. The term is now common parlance in French political commentary, used both critically and ironically referring back to de Gaulle. 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 in which the government had all but lost its majority in the March elections and hold new elections instead.

The June elections were a major success for the Gaullists and their allies; when shown the spectre of revolution or civil war, the majority of the country rallied to him. His party won of seats, [] but de Gaulle remained personally unpopular; a survey conducted immediately after the crisis showed that a majority of the country saw him as too old, too self-centered, too authoritarian, too conservative, and too anti-American.

De Gaulle resigned the presidency at noon, 28 April , [] following the rejection of his proposed reform of the Senate and local governments in a nationwide referendum. In an eight-minute televised speech two days before the referendum, De Gaulle warned that if he was "disavowed" by a majority of the voters, he would resign his office immediately.

This ultimatum, coupled with increased de Gaulle fatigue among the French, convinced many that this was an opportunity to be rid of the year-old general and the reform package was rejected. Two months later Georges Pompidou was elected as his successor. There the General, who often described old age as a "shipwreck," [] continued his memoirs, dictated to his secretary from notes. To visitors, de Gaulle said, "I will finish three books, if God grants me life. They had three children: Anne had Down's syndrome and died of pneumonia at the age of De Gaulle always had a particular love for Anne; one Colombey resident recalled how he used to walk with her hand-in-hand around the property, caressing her and talking quietly about the things she understood.

Charles de Gaulle had an older brother Xavier — and sister Marie-Agnes — , and two younger brothers, Jacques — and Pierre — He was particularly close to the youngest, Pierre, who so resembled him that presidential bodyguards often saluted him by mistake when he visited his famous brother or accompanied him on official visits. One of Charles de Gaulle's grandsons, also named Charles de Gaulle , was a member of the European Parliament from to , his last tenure being for the National Front. On 9 November , less than two weeks short of what would have been his 80th birthday, Charles de Gaulle died suddenly, despite enjoying very robust health his entire life except for a prostate operation a few years earlier.

He had been watching the evening news on television and playing Solitaire around 7: His wife called the doctor and the local priest, but by the time they arrived he had died from a ruptured blood vessel. France is a widow. The only notable absentee was Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau , possibly because he was still angry over de Gaulle's cry of " Vive le Quebec libre " during his visit.

The funeral on 12 November was the biggest such event in French history, with hundreds of thousands of French people—many carrying blankets and picnic baskets—and thousands of cars parked in the roads and fields along the routes to the two venues. Special trains were laid on to bring extra mourners to the region and the crowd was packed so tightly that those who fainted had to be passed overhead toward first-aid stations at the rear.

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. De Gaulle specified that his tombstone bear the simple inscription of his name and his years of birth and death. Therefore, it simply states, "Charles de Gaulle, —". It currently houses the Charles de Gaulle Museum. Historians have accorded Napoleon and de Gaulle the top-ranking status of French leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first Algerian president, Ahmed Ben Bella , said that de Gaulle was the "military leader who brought us the hardest blows" prior to Algerian independence, but "saw further" than other politicians, and had a "universal dimension that is too often lacking in current leaders.

In President Mitterrand, de Gaulle's old political rival, presided over the celebrations to mark the th anniversary of his birth. Between the mids and mids there developed a left-right consensus, dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism", behind the "French status" in NATO: Kennedy , who admired his stance against the Soviet Union—particularly when the Berlin Wall was being built—and who called him "a great captain of the Western world", their relationship later cooled.

De Gaulle was admired by the later President Nixon. After a meeting at the Palace of Versailles just before the general left office, Nixon declared that "He did not try to put on airs but an aura of majesty seemed to envelop him Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Thus Walters was intensely curious as to the great contrast between de Gaulle's close relations with two United States presidents during notable Cold War crises and de Gaulle's later decision to withdraw France from NATO's military command, and Walters spoke with many close military and political aides of de Gaulle.

Walters' conclusion, based upon de Gaulle's comments to many of his aides and to Eisenhower during a meeting at Ramboullet Castle in , is that de Gaulle feared that later United States presidents after Eisenhower would not have Eisenhower's special ties to Europe and would not risk nuclear war over Europe. A number of commentators have been critical of de Gaulle for his failure to prevent the massacres after Algerian independence [] while others take the view that the struggle had been so long and savage that it was perhaps inevitable.

In so doing, he refused to yield to the reasoning of his opponents who said that, if he succeeded in Algeria, he would no longer be necessary. He afterwards enjoyed massive approval ratings, and once said that "every Frenchman is, has been or will be Gaullist". 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 the much more conciliatory Pompidou called a referendum on the matter in His early influence in setting the parameters of the EEC can still be seen today, 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. A banker by profession, Pompidou is also widely credited, as de Gaulle's prime minister from —, with putting in place the reforms which provided the impetus for the economic growth which followed.

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In , 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 straight away. It was ironic, that during the financial crisis of , France had to rely on American and West German financial aid to help shore up the economy.

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