General and Head of French State.
Its role in the destiny of the country as from 1940 fact certainly of Charles de Gaulle the French politician most important of the XX E century. It is initially in the adversity that its figure was forged: chief of free France, it led it to the victory in 1945. Returned at the power in 1958 and founder of the fifth Republic, it put an end to the war of Algeria and achieved the decolonization of the old empire; chair Republic until April 28th, 1969, it unties, at least on the political plan, the crisis of May 68. Towards the military career Charles de Gaulle grows in Paris, where his/her father, Henri, teach the history and mathematics in a catholic college. At fifteen years, he hesitates between the literature and the army. The crisis of Agadir with Germany, in 1911, and the “rise of the dangers” direct it towards the military academy of Saint-Cyr military school. It belongs, with his three brothers, with the “generation of the revenge”, which wants to erase the defeat of 1870. At the Second world war, engaged as of August 1914, it is wounded twice, before being left for dead in March 1916 on the battlefield of Verdun. Taken by the Germans, it is looked after and sent in a prison camp. Its detention, marked by three escape bids, ends only with the armistice of November 1918.
The feather with the service of the action
This captivity is however fertile. While following the operations of war - on which it makes conferences -, it tests, by a vast program of readings, to bore the “mystery” of France: five times invaded since the Revolution, it did not find the institutions able to reconcile democracy and stability. But it will leave in the shade its political reflection to write only on the war: the Discord at the enemy (1924).
In 1920, it accompanies the Weygand general near the Poles in war against the Bolsheviks. On its return in France in 1921, he marries Yvonne Vendroux, who will give him three children: Philippe, Elisabeth and Anne - the latter, handicapped person, will die in nineteen years. Two years in Lebanon (1929-1930) complete its geopolitical formation: he there discovers Islam resistant to the Occident and wonders about the future of the colonial empires.
Meetings: Pétain and Paul Reynaud
Its qualities of analyst point out it. Initially by the Pétain marshal, then vice-president of the Superior council of the war, which takes it in 1925 in its cabinet. De Gaulle then multiplies the articles on the military and political situation. These reflections will give rise to the Wire of the sword (1932), portrait of the war leader, and Towards (1934), the draft professional army of an army of professionals conceived for the movement and centered on the armoured tanks, then with France and its army (1938). It is then Paul Reynaud, several times minister in the years 1930 before becoming president of the Council in March 1940, and in favor of firmness vis-a-vis in the Nazi Germany, which inserts it in the circle of his/her collaborators. De Gaulle writes her ministerial declarations; in May, it is named brigadier temporarily, and, on on June 5th, 1940, under-secretary of State to the War, in a government which will last only eleven days.
The war, Resistance
For Charles de Gaulle, the Second world war started in 1938 with Munich and the abandonment of Czechoslovakia. He thinks that it will be world, that the USSR - in spite of the pact germano-Soviet of August 1939 - and the United States will intervene, that the defeat of the Nazi Germany could be only the work of an alliance of the nations. This strategic vision explains its clearness during the “funny one of war” (September 1939 - May 1940), when the French believe themselves in the shelter, and its almost solitary refusal of the armistice of June 1940, whose defeatism appears to him “abominable”.
The countryside of France and the call of June 18th
The lightning war from May-June 1940 throws the French on the roads of the exodus. In charge of her tanks, de Gaulle carries out in Montcornet one of the rare brilliant actions in the middle of the disaster. At this point in time Paul Reynaud calls it with the ministry and asks him to go to London, where he discusses with Winston Churchill a pact Franco-British union. Returned to France - in Bordeaux, where the ministry took refuge -, it attends the resignation of Reynaud then on arrival of Pétain, which is informed near the Germans of the conditions of an armistice. De Gaulle then decides to go back to London.
Thanks to the support of Churchill, it reaches the microphone of the radio operator British, the BBC and, in the evening of June 18th, launches its call to the continuation of the fight by a modernized and regenerated army.
The combat of legitimacy
Recognized “chief of the free French” by Churchill as of on on June 28th, de Gaulle starts a hard combat to put forward the legitimacy of her action. In France, the National Assembly, at this meeting in Vichy on on July 10th, 1940, gives the full powers to the Pétain marshal; in Great Britain even, much of French soldiers taken refuge after Dunkirk, shocked by the destruction of the French fleet based with Mers to el-Kébir (July 3rd, 1940), prefer to recross the English Channel. Moreover, the major part of the colonial empire proclaims its fidelity in Vichy.
However, Felix Swept, governor of Chad, join as of July 1940. The Leclerc captain succeeds in, at the end of August, attaching theEquatorial one to free France. De Gaulle joined it with Cameroun and, in spite of a failure in front of Dakar at the end of September - it was received with blows of gun - lance on on October 27th, 1940, in Brazzaville, its first political proclamation. It there denounces the “unconstitutional” mode of the marshal and proclaims his will “to return counts its acts in front of the representatives of French people as soon as it is possible for him to indicate some freely”; it creates the Council of defense of the Empire, recognized by Great Britain on on December 24th. It is directed from now on towards the diplomatic combat, so that free France is recognized by the Allies like “only” France.
French Empire in the balance
The rallying of the Middle East in spring 1941 is carried out under dramatic conditions. Remained faithful to Pétain, the French soldiers resist to the British and to the free French. The gained victory, Churchill tergiversate, not wanting to accept that free France becomes the power agent in Syria. An serious attack of confidence bursts between British the Prime Minister and the de Gaulle general.
The invasion of the USSR by the German army in May 1941, then the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor in December extend the war to the whole world. De Gaulle, for whom “the Soviet presence in the camp of the Allies offers, with respect to the Anglo-Saxons, an element of balance”, sends the fighter squadron Normandy to fight near the Russians. The Americans and the British however think of opening a second face by an unloading. French North Africa is chosen, and dates it - on on November 8th, 1942 - stopped, without the chief of fighting France being warned by it. Much more, president Roosevelt chooses to give the civil and military government of North Africa released between the hands of a man of Vichy, the admiral Darlan; then, Darlan having been assassinated in December 1942, the Americans support the come to power of the Giraud general, escaped prisoner of Germany and brought to Algiers by the British.
Algiers, capital of France
It is the support of plain interior Resistance - in France entirely occupied by the Germans since the unloading in Algiers - and the success of the troop of Leclerc in Libya and Tunisia who allow de Gaulle to take foot in North Africa, on on May 30th, 1943. The day before, Jean Moulin, initiator of the National council of the Resistance - which joins together traditional parties and movements of Resistance - sent a telegram of fidelity to him. Vis-a-vis Giraud, which did not know to break with the legislation of Vichy, de Gaulle incarnates the return to republican legality. Initially copresident, then, starting from October 3rd, 1943, president of the French Committee of national release (CFLN), it controls the French Empire returned in the war.
An Advisory body sits at Algiers; composed of rejoined members of Parliament and representatives of the movements of Resistance, it is charged to prepare the future. Thus surrounded, the CFLN changes, on on June 3rd, 1944, in Provisional government of the French Republic, according to the unanimous wish of the Parliament, and is recognized officially by the Allies. All the parties sit there, even the Communist party, with which colonel Rémy, secret agent of free France, made contact since 1942.
The landing of the Allied in Normandy takes place on on June 6th, 1944. As of the 14, the de Gaulle general is with Courseulles-on-Sea, where the population applauds it. He obtains from Eisenhower that Leclerc division releases Paris, and gains itself the capital on on August 25th. The following day, it descends the Fields-Elysées triumphantly.
The quarrel of the Bonapartism
Released, France of 1944 is not yet victorious. It is necessary for him to take part in the war and to go to Berlin, where the general of Lattre succeeds in imposing the signature of France on the agreements of armistice, on on May 8th, 1945. The committed combat so with difficulty in 1940 is gained. Remain to rebuild the country.
In charge of the Provisional government, the de Gaulle general continues his policy of national union and seeks the “pacification of the spirits” - it obtains in particular the dissolution of the patriotic militia formed with the Release by PCF. Moreover, he wants “to return the word to the people” by way of referendum: the traditional parties, which see in this practice a return to the plebiscites of the Second Empire, consequently show it of personal ambitions, of “Bonapartism”. Prisoners and deportees having returned, the legislative elections can take place; they are framed by two referendums: one to know if one needs a new Constitution (95 % of “yes”), the other to decide to subject or not to referendum the text worked out by the constituent Assembly elected on on October 21st, 1945, where the Communists dominate, Christian Democrats of the popular Republican movement (MRP) and the Socialists (66 % of “yes”).
Elected official head of government unanimously, on on November 13th, 1945, de Gaulle is however quickly in dissension with the majority of the Parliament on the constitution project: opposed to a system of parliamentary sovereignty, in which he sees the reason of the weakness and the mistakes of IIIe République, he wants an executive stronger. On January 20th, 1946, he resigns. Was it convinced that it well quickly would be pointed out? Always it is that, with the ratification of the new Constitution, in October 1946, IVe République settles without him, and undoubtedly against him.
In April 1947, de Gaulle launches then the Gathering of French people (RPF) to obtain the reform of the mode. In spite of an immediate success with the municipal elections, it fails the legislative elections of 1951. In 1953, it returns their freedom to his elected officials and is withdrawn with Colombey-the-Two-Churches, where it undertakes the drafting of its Memories of war (1954-1959). It hardly leaves its silence but to be opposed, in 1954, with the project of European army.
The return of June 1958
The war of Indo-China finishes in 1954 after the defeat of Diên Biên Phu. The same year begins in Algeria a war where the quota will be sent soon in reinforcement of the professional army. For price of this effort, the army requires the full powers in order to make succeed its policy of “integration” of the Moslems in “French Algeria”. On May 13th, 1958, after a riot in Algiers, the Massu general launches a call to de Gaulle. On May 15th, the general declares himself ready to form the government. President Coty calls upon him on on May 29th, and the Parliament invests it on on June 1st. As in 1946, it poses like precondition the drafting of a Constitution instituting an executive strong and subjected to the popular ratification. This condition is acquired in September, with the assistance of Michel Debré, Minister of Justice: the constitutional project obtains 80% of “yes”, in France and in the whole of old Empire of overseas, transformed into “the Community” (only Guinea voted “not”). In December 1958, Charles de Gaulle is elected president of Ve République by a college the notable ones.
The strategist of legitimacy
During the ten years when it will remain in charge of the State, the de Gaulle general will ask by the vote for all, in the calm one or the storm, to be at the same time the “source” of his action and his “recourse”. The most urgent work is the payment of the Algerian question. Peaceful in Black Africa, walk towards self-determination then towards independence is dramatic in Algeria: the Head of State must overcome the revolt of “pied-noir” Europeans in January 1960 (“days of the barricades” with Ager, January 24th); the putsch of the generals in April 1961; the waves of attacks of the OAS (of which itself misses being victim, on on September 8th in Pont-sur-Seine), and, once ratified independence (agreement of Evian, March 18th, 1962), it escapes a new attack from the OAS, on the road of the Petit-Clamart (August 22nd).
On October 28th, 1962, he asks the French to approve for the future the election of the president of the Republic by the vote for all. Adopted by 62.25 % of the voices against the whole of the parties, except the Union for new Republic (UNR) created to support it, this reform ensures the second foundation of Ve République.
Outside, de Gaulle leads with tenacity a policy of national independence. In 1963, it signs with the German chancellor Adenauer a treaty which it wishes of reconciliation for the past and, for the future, of construction of main become again Europe of its destiny. He says it to Moscow, where he goes in 1966; he says it in Poland and Romania. Kampuchea and Quebec hear its calls to the freedom of the people. He attracts himself the hostility of the United States thus and even that of Israel, which he prevents against the misdeeds to come - terrorism - from his war of 1967. Inside, with economic prosperity, progress of civil and military research (plane Caravel; focusing of the atomic bomb) are the instruments of its policy of independence which enable him to leave France NATO, in 1966.
May 68: end of legitimacy?
Re-elected in 1965, de Gaulle must face the opposition of the left parties joined together around François Mitterrand. But it is at the university that the crisis bursts in May 1968. In front of the riot which ignites Paris and the strikes which paralyze the country, de Gaulle, whose first actions to restore the order then the proposal for a referendum on the participation failed, leaves the Elysium to join the general Massu in Baden-Baden, on on May 29th. Will it be withdrawn? It returns the following day, to denounce with the radio, as it did in the serious hours, the “totalitarian threat” and to dissolve the Parliament. The party gaullist, the Union for the defense of Republic (UDR), gains the elections of June 1968 triumphantly.
But, as of April 1969, the General undertakes to test the confidence of the French by organizing a referendum on the regionalization and the reform of the Senate. “Not” carries it: he resigns at once, and attends quiet the election of his successor, Georges Pompidou, who ensures the perenniality of the mode. Withdrawn in Colombey, it writes the first volume of its Memories of hope (1970) and dies abruptly, on on November 9th, 1970, eighteen months after having left the power.