Charles de Gaulle

I

Introduction

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), French general and statesman, the architect of the Fifth French Republic and its first president (1959-1969).

De Gaulle was born in Lille and educated at Saint-Cyr Military Academy. During World War I he served with distinction at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, was wounded three times, and was finally taken prisoner by the Germans. After the war he was aide-de-camp to Marshal Henri Pétain. De Gaulle won prominence by his advocacy of a highly mechanized French army that he described in his books on military tactics. Early in World War II (1939-1945) he attained the rank of brigadier general. After the fall of France he escaped to London, where he announced the formation of a French national committee in exile. In 1942 this committee was officially recognized by the Allied governments and the Resistance leaders in France. As president of the Free French, de Gaulle commanded French troops fighting with the Allied armies as well as those participating in the Resistance in German-occupied France.

II

Leader of the Free French Forces

The forces under de Gaulle's command, including French colonials and a considerable part of the French fleet, made an unsuccessful attack on Dakar (now in Senegal) in September 1940, joined the British forces in the conquest of Syria in 1941, and took control of Madagascar in 1942. In June 1943 de Gaulle joined the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, capital of the French colony of Algeria, as copresident with General Henri Giraud. After maneuvering Giraud out, in 1943, de Gaulle became sole president of the committee, which moved its headquarters from Algiers to London in May 1944 and to Paris in August 1944, after the Allies liberated France. The following month the committee was recognized by the United States government as the de facto government of France. De Gaulle became provisional premier-president in November 1945. Two months later he resigned because his proposals for increasing the powers of the president met with hostility from the people and the legislature of France. In 1947 he organized a new political movement, the Rassemblement du Peuple Français (Rally of the People of France), or RPF. In the 1951 elections, the RPF won the largest number of seats in the French Assembly. The RPF worked to strengthen the central government, balance the budget, promote private enterprise, and remove state controls on the economic life of France. By 1953, however, the strength of the movement had so declined that de Gaulle disavowed it and went into retirement.

III

Return to Power

In May 1958 France was confronted with a threat of civil war over the question of independence for Algeria. De Gaulle was recalled to serve as premier. The National Assembly granted him power to rule by decree for six months and to supervise the drafting of a new constitution. The new charter, conferring vastly increased powers on the executive branch, was overwhelmingly approved by the French voters. The following December de Gaulle was elected president of the newly created Fifth Republic. He took office on January 8, 1959.

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During his first term de Gaulle instituted economic, industrial, and governmental reforms, negotiated Algerian independence, and led France into the European Economic Community. He also championed a unilateral nuclear-weapons program for France, which exploded an atomic weapon in 1960. He strengthened ties with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and with Communist China and attempted to extend French influence in Asia and Latin America, while displaying resentment against the United States. However, he continued to support the United States in the fundamentals of its Cold War rivalry with the USSR.

IV

Second Term

In 1965 de Gaulle was elected to a second seven-year term as president, but his margin of victory was narrowed. During the following years he irked many by urging the autonomy of French Canada and replacing the U.S. dollar as the chief international monetary-exchange standard, with a return to the gold standard. His request for the withdrawal from France of troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was fulfilled in 1967. In May 1968 de Gaulle faced the greatest crisis since his return to power, when rebellious students and striking workers brought the economic life of France to a virtual standstill. De Gaulle, however, triumphed, and in elections the next month his supporters considerably increased their majority in the National Assembly. De Gaulle resigned the presidency following defeat in a national referendum in April 1969. He retired to his private estate in Colombey-les-deux-Églises, and there he continued to work on his memoirs until his death.

De Gaulle wrote three books on military tactics, Edge of the Sword (1932; translated 1960); The Army of the Future (1934; translated 1941); and France and Its Army (1938; translated 1945); and of War Memoirs (3 volumes, 1954-1959; translated 1955-1960) and Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor (2 volumes, 1970-1971; translated 1972).