Charles de Gaulle

See also: Charles de Gaulle (homonymy), CDG

Charles de Gaulle (born the November 22nd 1890 with Lille, in the Northern - died the November 9th 1970 with Colombey-the-Two-Churches, in Haute-Marne) was a general and a statesman French, which was, since its exile with London, the chief of the resistance to the German occupation of the France during the Second world war (the free France ), then the founder of the V {{E}} Republic in 1958, of which it became the first president of 1959 with 1969.

It was single Grand Master of the Ordre of the Release.

Biography

Family origins and etymology

Charles André Joseph Pierre-Marie de Gaulle is born with Lille, but its family name is not Flemish origin. A thorny polemic remains indeed about its name, some having believed to see in the particle the Flemish definite article Of . According to work of the family, in particular those of the paternal grandfather of the general de Gaulle, de Gaulle are a very former family of the French Old nobility, which is however not recognized in the French peerage-books. The most former probable ancestor of the de Gaulle general would be, according to this work, Richard de Gaulle, rider of the king Philippe Auguste who equipped it with a stronghold with Tweed-in-Bray, Normandy, in 1210. One finds trace towards 1420 of Jehan de Gaulle which, after the disaster of Azincourt, resisted during nearly two years to the English Vire, in the west of Normandy, before having to exile itself in Burgundy.

With one finds trace of captain-lords of the manor de Gaulle with Cuisery in the south of Burgundy. Gaspard de Gaulle, qualified by the king Charles IX of knight , was delegated Bailliage of Châlon-sur-saône to the general states of Blois in 1576. De Gaulle settled then in Champagne where one finds their trace with Châlons-in-Champagne with, exerting loads of justice and integrated into the Noblesse de robe. The family settled finally with Paris about the middle of the 18th century. The great-grandfather of the general de Gaulle, lawyer (i.e. prosecutor) with the Parliament of Paris, appeared before the revolutionary Tribunal during the Terreur but succeeds in avoiding the guillotine. De Gaulle had resided for almost a hundred and fifty years in Paris when Charles de Gaulle was born in 1890.

The name de Gaulle seems to result from a Germanic form (franque or Norman): De Walle , meaning the wall (of enclosure), the rampart , where Of = the and Walle = wall , the W Germanic having evolved/moved in G in Romance (cf also William/Wilhelm and Guillaume). The very old French nobility often went down from chalk-linings frank or Norman, which can explain the Germanic origin of the de Gaulle patronym. Walle comes from the Saxon Vieux wal , which gave the English wall or the Danish valley . The Saxon old man wal is a loan with the Latin vallum ( line of piles, palisades, rampart ), of been worth ( pile ).

The maternal family of Charles de Gaulle, the Shirt, was originating in the Flandres Frenchwomen. It is as regards this maternal family which the de Gaulle general had of the Irish ancestors (MacCartan, Jacobites taken refuge in France after the Glorieuse Revolution), Scot (Fleming), and German (Kolb, of the Duché of Bade). The maternal grandfather of the de Gaulle general was a industrial textile inhabitant of Lille. Although the de Gaulle family lived in Paris, the mother of the de Gaulle general went in her family to Lille to give rise to her son, in agreement with the family tradition.

Education and family

Born with Lille the November 22nd 1890 in a Catholic family resident with Paris, Charles de Gaulle was the son of Henri, professor of letters and history, and Jeanne Maillot. Charles has three brothers, of which two will be Résistant S, and a sister, who it also will enter Resistance:

Xavier de Gaulle (1887-1955), which will be Prisoner of war, then Résistant during the Second world war; he is the father of Genevieve of Gaulle-Anthonioz.
Marie-Agnes de Gaulle (1889-1982).
Jacques de Gaulle (1893-1946), which will remain handicapped in 1926 after a Encéphalite.
Pierre de Gaulle (1897-1959) which will be resistant, politician, administrator of companies.

Very early, his/her father makes discover in Charles works of Barrès, Bergson and Péguy. The family is then monarchist and counts among the readers of the French Action (until the judgment of the movement of Charles Maurras by the the Vatican). Its family is regarded as “liberal catholic”, will be supporter of Dreyfus and, although “monarchist of regret”, will join himself the Republic in the direction indicated by the pope. His/her father is moreover an admiror of Louis Rossel, “general” of the Commune of Paris, shot by the Of Versailles ones.

Charles de Gaulle makes part of her primary studies at the school of the brothers of the Christian schools of the parish Saint-Thomas-with Aquin (today Lycée Saint-Thomas-in Aquin) with Paris. At the time of the political crisis resulting from the Separation of the Church and the State in 1905, Charles de Gaulle is brought to continue her studies in Belgium, first experiment of Exil.

Entered 119e on 221 with the Military academy of Saint-Cyr military school in 1908 after having made its preparatory classes with the prestigious private college catholic Stanislas in Paris, it left graduate in 1912 (promotion of Fès whose major was the future marshal June) and joined the infantry there. Affected with the 33 {{E}} regiment of infantry to Arras, it is then under the orders of the colonel Pétain.

First World War

Lieutenant at the beginning of the First World War, it is then named captain in January 1915. Wounded as of its first Dining combat with the August 15th 1914, it joined 33e IH on the Champagne face to order the 7th company. It is again wounded the March 10th 1915 with the left hand, on the Sum. Decided in découdre, he disobeys his superiors while ordering to draw on the enemy trenches. This act is worth to him to be raised eight days of its functions. Officer meddlesome, readily breakable, his intelligence and his courage vis-a-vis fire distinguish it so much so that the Commander of 33e IH offers to him to be its adjoint.
The March 2nd 1916, its regiment is attacked and almost destroyed by the enemy by defending the village of Douaumont, close to Verdun. Its company is destroyed during this combat and the survivors are encircled. According to the official version, it tries an opening then; the violence of the combat obliges it to jump in a hole of Obus, to protect itself, but of the Germans imitate it and wound it of a blow of bayonet to the left thigh. Taken by the German troops, it is looked after and interned. A soldier of its company however provided another version of the facts: “We were encircled and under the orders of our de Gaulle captain we were obliged to return to us. ”

After a missed escape bid, it is transferred at the height from Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, a camp of reprisals intended for the stirring up officers. It crosses there the future general Georges Catroux, the aviator Roland Garros, the journalist Rémy Roure, the editor Shepherd-Levrault and the future Soviet marshal Toukhatchevski. A “lamentable exile”, it is in these terms that it describes with his mother her fate of prisoner. To mislead the trouble, de Gaulle organizes for her companions of captivity of the authoritative reviews on the state of the war in progress. But especially, it tries to escape with five recoveries, without success. It is released after the armistice November 11th 1918 and finds to them his in December. Of these two years and half of captivity, it will have a bitter memory, estimating to be a “ghost”, an useless soldier who was used for nothing. It will receive, however, at the conclusion of the Great War the cross of knight of the Légion of honor, the July 23rd 1919, and the Military Cross 1914-1918 with bronze star.

Concerning this period of captivity which followed its rendering, the Perré general declared in 1966: " One of my friends who was prisoner with de Gaulle brought back this to me. Boches which made the honor with the French officers who had courageously fought to return to them their saber for certain demonstrations like the mass for example, did not return it to the de Gaulle captain. This one, believing in a lapse of memory, theirs claimed curtly. The Germans were astonished by his request but, with any chance, remade an investigation into the conditions of its rendering. Information taken, the Germans did not return his saber to the captain of Gaulle".

Inter-war period

Charles de Gaulle continues her military career.

Of 1919 with 1921, de Gaulle is sent in Poland where it takes part in the formation of the new army which fights victoriously against the Red Army . It is let influence violently by the atmosphere anti-semite and pogromist, as attest some two letters sent to its family and reproduced in the second volume of the Lettres, notes and notebooks.

On his return, the de Gaulle captain is part-time lecturer at the School of Saint-Cyr military school, before his admission with the University of war in 1922.

Charles de Gaulle marries the April 7th 1921 Yvonne Vendroux (May 22nd 1900 with Calais - November 8th 1979 with Paris), of which it will have three children:

Philippe de Gaulle (December 28th 1921 with Paris) will be [[admiral], then Senator].

Elisabeth de Gaulle, born the May 15th 1924 in Paris.

Anne de Gaulle (January 1st 1928 with Trier - February 6th 1948 with Colombey-the-Two-Churches), born trisomic.

In 1925, it is detached with the staff marshal Pétain, vice-president of the Superior council of the War. It is affected with Trier in 1927, as commander of the 19th Battalion of hunters to foot (BCP). January 1st 1928 is born his/her second Anne daughter. De Gaulle is transferred to the Raising in 1929 and spends two years to Beirut with her family. In 1931 it is affected to the general secretary of National defense in Paris. This new station is for him important, because it is the occasion to initiate itself with the businesses of the State.

It is during these years that Charles de Gaulle develops her military theories: it publishes the Discord at the enemy (1924), the Wire of the sword (1932), Towards the professional army (1934) and France and its army (1938). This last book caused an estrangement with the Maréchal Pétain, which would have liked to sign it.

In 1932, the Wire of the sword recalls the importance of the training of the chiefs and the weight of the circumstances. It approaches the theory of necessity for a body of Blindé S, combining fire and the movement, capable of initiatives and bold offensives.

In its work Towards the Professional army published in 1934, it develops this basic problem which requires the creation of a Professional army at the sides with the Conscription. However, this idea meets few positive feedbacks, except notable for the French Action , which greets on several occasions, under the feather of Charles Maurras and of Jacques Bainville, his modern design of a war of offensive and its mistrust with respect to the germanism reappearing, of Paul Reynaud, Député of right, or Philippe Serre.

Abroad, on the other hand, the use of the Blindé S such as de Gaulle recommends it causes more the great attention (Guderian, Liddell Hart). Towards the professional army has in France only one short success of curiosity, but inspires, of its own consent, the Général Guderian, creator of the German mechanical force.

With Paris, de Gaulle attends various personalities around the colonel Emile Mayer, pensioner very open, favorable to a reform of the Stratégie: the staff should not be satisfied with a defensive strategy behind the Ligne Maginot. However, neither one nor the other are listened.

On the basis of the ideas of the general Fuller and British military critic Liddell Binder, de Gaulle defends a Mobile warfare carried out by soldiers of trade, and supported by armoured tanks. De Gaulle makes her first conference with the Sorbonne in spring 1934, under the aegis of the Cercle Fustel-to-Coulange, a window of the French Action. Of inspiration Monarchist, Charles de Gaulle, soldier subjected to the duty of reserve, reveals in its private correspondence its little of consideration for the parliamentarism and prefers to him a strong mode. Until the end of its life, it will mark its admiration for the personality and the work of the royalist historian Jacques Bainville.

Its ideas however run up on the one hand against deep the Conservatisme of the military leaders, and on the other hand with the reserves of the republicans vis-a-vis a soldier of reputation maurrassienne. However de Gaulle, disciple of Péguy (influenced by the socialism of Pierre Leroux) and of Bergson, was trained by colonel Mayer, officer of origin Jew, supporter of Dreyfus and socializing. It has in its wake attended the Socialist Club of the Suburb (it before the First World War had attended Lille with meetings of Jaurès) and the nonconformist movements of the Thirties (Spirit, etc). It had also adhered to the catholic organizations of left: the Furrow of Marc Sangnier, “Friends of Seven ”, “Friends of Time Present ”, ancestor of Christian Testimony . These last movements were in addition favorable to the Popular front and the intervention of France at the sides of the Républicains Spanish.

Leon Blum proclamation his sharp hostility for the ideas of colonel de Gaulle in three articles published by the Popular , because it fears that this army is not used against the people, in particular the strikers. And in fact, as a letter of 1935 shows it sent to Paul Reynaud, de Gaulle excluded such a possibility by no means. Certain passages of the books published by colonel de Gaulle cause besides the approval of the French Action.

Colonel in 1937, it is named with the head of the 507e tank regiment to Metz. At the time of the declaration of war of France and the United Kingdom in Germany the September 3rd 1939, colonel de Gaulle is named ordering tanks of Ve Armée.

Second world war

When war bursts, Charles de Gaulle is always colonel (even if his advance seems next), ordering the 507e regiment of tanks of combat (RCC), with Metz. In January 1940, it sends to eighty personalities, of which Leon Blum and Paul Reynaud, like with the general Gamelin and the general Weygand, a memorandum based on the operations of Poland. Heading the Advent of the mechanical force , the text insists on the need for combining the tank and aviation.

Three days before the German offensive of the May 10th 1940, which leads to a fast opening of the French face, colonel de Gaulle is informed decision of the command to entrust the 4th to him most powerful DCR, of the great units of the French Army of which it takes indeed the command on May 11th. The May 15th, it receives the mission of delaying the enemy in the area of Laon in order to gain deadlines to make it possible to set up the 6th army charged to bar the road of Paris. But its armor-plated division is yet only in the course of constitution, its units not having never operated together. It however directed with this unit a counter-attack towards Montcornet, in the North-East of Laon, one of only which managed to push back the German troops. Envisaging the fast defeat of the French Army under the German offensive, the civilians and the soldiers disarmed on the roads, he will affirm that it is during the day of the May 16th that “what could do, thereafter, it is this day that solved it. ”. Having received only part of the units of the 4th DCR, colonel de Gaulle launches a first attack with 80 tanks to try to cut the lines of communication of German armor-plated divisions the May 17th. After having achieved its goals whose town of Moncornet, the 4th DCR, not being supported, is forced to fold up itself vis-a-vis the intervention of enemy reinforcements.

The other units of the 4th DCR having joined, a new attack can be launched with 150 tanks which, after having made it possible to reach the primary goals, is stopped by the intervention of the aviation of attack and artillery German.

The May 28th, after a displacement of 200 km, very testing for the material, the 4th DCR, whose chief has been general temporarily for four days, attacks twice to destroy, with height of Abbeville, a pocket which the enemy conquered in the south of the Sum. The operation is a success which makes it possible to make more than 400 prisoners and to reabsorb all the pocket except for Abbeville because of the superiority of number and out of artillery of the adversary. This one will be able to cross the Sum only later in the north of Abbeville, but the second attack will not make it possible the 4th DCR to take the city because of the numerical superiority of the adversary. June 1st, it makes function of brigadier general temporarily.

The June 6th 1940, the de Gaulle general is convened urgently in Paris by Paul Reynaud, president of the Council, to occupy a ministerial position in its government, that of under-secretary of State to the War and National defense.

Charles de Gaulle leaves at this time the military hierarchy. It has the role of coordinating the action with the the United Kingdom for the continuation of the combat. The 9, it meets Churchill which it in vain tries to convince to engage more forces, including air, in the battle. The June 10th, de Gaulle leaves Paris, declared opened city, for Orleans, Briare and Tours. On mission with London, the June 16th, it dictates on the telephone the note Anglo-French Unity of Jean Monnet in Paul Reynaud. From return of mission, the same day, with Bordeaux, he learns the resignation from the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud, his replacement by the marshal Pétain and armistice requires it. The de Gaulle general is thus évincé of this government.

Call of June 18th, 1940

June 18th, 1940, de Gaulle prepares with speaking to French people via Radio London about BBC. This day, it calls the French with resistance since his retirement in England. The British cabinet tries to be opposed to it, but Winston Churchill supports it. From France, the Call of June 18th can be heard at 7 p.m. For this day, this text has remained one of the most famous short speeches of the French history. This call was however not recorded and it is the recording of June 22nd, 1940 which is actually presented like the call of June 18th.

The British government had as a preliminary proposed to the French minister Interior Georges Mandel to pass to the United Kingdom and from launching itself a call. Mandel was, by its warnings repeated against the threats of IIIe Reich (and in opposition on this subject with his/her friend the president of the Council Leon Blum), announced like a character and statesman. But he refused to leave France not to lend the side to a criticism of desertion which would have been exploited at once (he was Juif).

It is known today that throughout the day of June 18th, the British Council of Ministers discussed the text of De Gaulle. The former inhabitants of Munich, behind the Foreign Minister Lord Halifax, want still to spare the Pétain government and to wait to see whether it indeed will sign the Armistice. Winston Churchill, old man in favor of firmness against Hitler and the continuation of the fight, must put its authority in the balance. De Gaulle could finally pronounce her text, but had to agree to modify of them the first two lines in a less hard direction for the French government. This a long time occulted modification disappeared in the text forwarded to the press, then in the Mémoires of de Gaulle.

The free France

Release of France and its colonies

In spite of her exclusion by Roosevelt of the unloading américano-British in North Africa (Operation Torch), and especially in spite of the support brought by the the United States for the admiral François Darlan, then with the general of group of armies Giraud, de Gaulle succeeds in taking foot with Algiers in May 1943. It there created with Henri Giraud the French Comité of the national Release (CFLN), to unify the direction of the released Empire, and was soon at its head.

After the Unloading in Normandy, on June 6th 1944, the de Gaulle general made her entry in Territoire French on the beach of Courseulles-on-Sea in Normandy the June 14th 1944. This same day, he pronounced the first Discours of Bayeux. The CFLN took then the name of Provisional government of the French Republic (GPRF) the French then discovered his imposing silhouette (it measured 1,93 m).

Firmness and the speed with which the de Gaulle general restored the authority of a national Gouvernement made it possible to avoid the installation of AMGOT, envisaged by the Americans, who would have made released France a State managed and occupied by the winners. He insisted with strength near the Général Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the allied armies, so that Paris was released quickly, whereas its strategy envisaged to go directly towards the east without passing by the capital. The the 2nd division armor-plated of the general Leclerc releases Paris the August 25th and this one receives the rendering of Von Choltitz. This same day, the de Gaulle general reinstalls himself with the ministry for the War, Rue Saint-Dominique with Paris, in the office which it occupied until June 10th 1940, meaning thus that Vichy was a bracket and than the République forever ceased existing. Then it goes to the Town hall, where it makes a speech in which it insists on the crucial role played by the French for their own release. The following day, August 26th, it descends the Fields-Élysées triumphantly. The “people in his depths” express an indescribable enthusiasm. September 9th, a government of national unanimity is made up, under its presidency.

GPRF was seen transferred to Paris, released in September 1944.

A constituent Assembly was then elected in October 1945, six months after the end of the war.

At the Provisional government of France

De Gaulle initiates the attribution of the right to vote to the women of France to the Libération. Other reforms are undertaken with the Release, of the Nationalization S with the installation of a modern system of Social security (more modern than that of Alsace, which had kept since 1918 that of Bismarck and preserved it). They must much with SFIO, Communist party and with the popular Republican movement (MRP).

President of the Provisional government, but in dissension with the constituent Assembly on the design of the State and the role of the parties, de Gaulle gives his resignation on the question of the military appropriations to the president of the National Assembly, Felix Gouin, the January 20th 1946. He fulfilled the mission which he had given himself on June 18th, 1940: to release the territory, to restore the Republic, to organize free elections and democratic, to undertake economic and social modernization. But de Gaulle hopes that one will call upon him very quickly again.

Political course during IVe Republic

The June 16th 1946, de Gaulle extremely exposes her vision of the Organization Politique of a State Démocratique to Bayeux, in Normandy, in a speech remained famous; but it is not followed. The left, the Christian-Democrats and part of the right-hand side consider that its ideas are too far away from the republican and parliamentary tradition.

Foundation of RPF

In 1947, it founds a political movement, the Rassemblement of French people (RPF), in order to transform the French political scene, to fight against the “exclusive” mode of the parties, to be opposed to advanced Communism and to promote a new constitutional reform privileging the executive power. He also proposes a third economic way (the profit-sharing scheme). The RPF also takes again the most traditional line topics: colonial ultraconservatism (he criticizes until the construction of colleges of mainstream education with Madagascar), virulent anticommunism (exploiting concerns on the projection of Communism in the French Union and in Indo-China) and even, at least until in 1950, leniency with regard to Philippe Pétain, whose deputies RPF, on the initiative of Louis Terrenoire, former deportee, ask for the amnesty. However, the declarations of Colonel Rémy rehabilitating the role of the Pétain marshal will be immediately repudiated by the de Gaulle general; but not the initiative of Terrenoire. It is true, as recalled by the historian Rene Rémond (in Lines in France ), that it is in the name of the national reconciliation that in 1949 and 1950, the same de Gaulle general pled for the widening of the “old man of ninety-five years”.
The party rejoins the resistant ones (of which Jacques Chaban-Delmas) but also of notable like Edouard Frederic-Dupont or Edmond Barrachin (which was, in the years 1930, directing of the central committee of the Parti social French). Former petainists and even of former collaborators manage to be made there admit, in particular in the sections of Indo-China and Algérie, in the service of order, the rows of the working trade unions close to the R.P.F and among the mayors elected in 1947. Certain polemists of the party, in particular Jean Nocher, deploy an extreme verbal aggressiveness. For these reasons, the historian Henry Rousso (in the Syndrome of Vichy ) distinguishes with the RPF “ tendencies propetainists, either that they were envoûtées by the magic of words marechalist, or which they were convinced of his impact in the opinion ”. Rene Rémond ( Lines in France ) prefers to bring the RPF closer to the line of the Bonapartisme and the boulangism, while observing that the RPF is, in the history of the gaullism, the episode least distant from this “ that in France one with the practice to qualify Fascism ”. It seems that we have business on a muscular but republican line there, that one can bring closer to the P.S.F of the colonel of Castling, another expression of a current which one can describe as “fascist” only by abuse language.

After a great success in 1947 - 1948 (35% of the votes to the local elections of 1947,42% of the senators elected in 1948), the RPF declines of 1949 with 1951. The effective management of the social events of the autumn 1947 by the government of the Third force weakened the movement gaullist. The recourse to de Gaulle then seems less necessary for the conservatives, the moderate ones and employers. In the opposition, the RPF is struck of a true ostracism on behalf of the other political parties, maintained by the refusal the de Gaulle general to compromise itself with the other parties. In 1951, the RPF obtains even more than 4 million voice (22,3% of the votes and 16,8% of the registered voters) and 117 deputies, but deputies RPF are not enough numerous to modify the industrial relations policy, nor to push with a reform of the institutions.

The RPF is irremediably weakened by the defection of twenty-seven deputies: thus, against the instructions of the General, Edouard Frederic-Dupont and Edmond Barrachin vote confidence with the government of Antoine Pinay in 1952. In July, forty-five others make defection. The gaullists divide then between the loyal supporters, who found the Union of the republicans of social action (URAS), and the others, which join the republican and social Action (ARS).

Spacing of the capacity

With the local elections of 1953, the RPF loses half of its votes. It enters then in hibernation. The elected officials gaullists will still take part with PCF in the failure of the European Community of defense (CED) in 1954, before the final deactivation of the RPF the September 13rd 1955.

Following the defeat at the polls of his party, the de Gaulle general withdraws himself with Colombey-the-Two-Churches and writes his Mémoires of war . The five years which follow are called the " crossing of the désert" , expression which will be taken again to indicate the periods when other political personalities or sporting will be found out of fires of the slope in waiting of a back in favor.

1958: Return to the capacity

Crisis of Algeria

See also: War of Algeria, Putsch of Algiers (1958), Putsch of Algiers, Speech of Algiers

Following the failures of the IV {{E}} Republic in Indo-China and Algeria, an insurrection bursts with Algiers and the civil and military putschists organize a Comité of public hello (in reference to that of the French revolution) the May 13rd 1958 to maintain Algeria French. They call some with the return of the de Gaulle General. The antenna of Algiers installation by the Minister for Defense Jacques Chaban-Delmas since 1957, directed by Lucien Neuwirth and Leon Delbecque influenced the partisans of Algeria in the French Republic. As brought it back Olivier Guichard in With de Gaulle (see bibliography), the antenna of Algiers made especially transmission: the work of influence was supervised by the two closer collaborators of the general de Gaulle, Guichard itself and, for the soldiers, Jacques Foccart. The General “ knew all, of course ”, according to Olivier Guichard.

With the capacity during Ve République

In November, the gaullists gain the legislative elections and obtain a comfortable majority. In December, de Gaulle is elected president of the Republic with 78 % of the voices by the indirect suffrage by more: 80,000 Great Electors.

Charles de Gaulle takes her president's functions of the Republic the January 8th 1959. It engages of difficult measurements to revitalize the country, with in particular the introduction of new the frankly (being worth 100 old francs).

On the international scene, refusing the domination of the the United States like the USSR, it defends independent France, laying out of the nuclear deterrent force. It also sets up the beginnings of the French space program. As a founding member of the European Economic community (the EEC), it poses its veto at the entry of the the United Kingdom.

Four years of conflict in Algeria

With regard to the War of Algeria, de Gaulle raised initially great hopes among the French of Algeria, to which he declared the June 4th 1958: “I included/understood you. ” It kept however anything to promise to them precis at the time of this speech, and took again neither their watchword of “integration” nor their slogan “Algeria French” - expression which it will use only once, with in the voice one moment of hesitation which will be cut to the assembly, on June 7th with Mostaganem.

But it adopted also some liberal measures in direction of the Algerian insurrectionists: “peace of the brave men” proposed with FLN in October 1958, graces granted to several rebels of which Yacef Saadi, condemned to died as old directing FLN during the Battle of Algiers, formal official prohibition of the acts of torture. It is also under de Gaulle that the Moslem women of Algeria obtained the right to vote, that one saw the Moslems finally being able to so vote with equality with Europeans (as of before independence in 1962, a majority of the mayors of Algeria are themselves of the Moslems), or that the first Moslem prefect of Algeria was named (Mahdi Belhaddad with Constantine). De Gaulle announced in person the implementation of the Plan of Constantine, in this city, in September 1958: this plan envisaged, over five years, the redistribution of: 250,000 ha of grounds, the construction of: 200,000 residences and the creation of: 400,000 employment. In 1960, De Gaulle did not hesitate to receive in person, in the Elysium, without to have made it excavate, the chief rebels If Salah, ready to discuss with France by discouragement.

However, de Gaulle did not sanction nor did not transfer any person in charge of tortures, and those continued on the ground. It left its Prime Minister, Michel Debré, to vilify like “communist operation” the overpowering ratio drawn up by the young person Michel Rocard, and who denounced the inhuman accumulation of two million civil people in “Camps of regroupings”. Since 1959, de Gaulle also returned from there to a traditional solution of military repression. At the summer 1959, the operation “Binoculars”, known as plan Shawl, carried with the FLN its hardest blows through all the country. Admittedly, De Gaulle realized quickly that it was not possible to solve the conflict by a simple military victory, and with the autumn 1959 it started to be directed towards a solution leading ineluctably to the Indépendance of the Algérie. But until winter 1961/62, it chooses all the same to continue the war, at the price of many victims and, according to the historian Remi Kauffer, of an increase in the use of torture. Until the end of 1961, the fight against the FLN is carried out with as much strength, and even more, front. According to Constantin Melnik, special adviser of Michel Debré charged to coordinate the secret services, there were approximately 500 political assassinations between 1958 and 1961, of which some did not have besides any relationship with the war of Algeria, like that of Felix Moumié, Cameronian freedom fighter.

There remains difficult to know when de Gaulle understood that independence was the only solution to leave an expensive conflict as men, silver and international prestige. In 1961, it still made write by Alain Peyrefitte a plan of partition of Algeria, undoubtedly in fact to make pressure on FLN. To same the Alain Peyrefitte, he explained as of 1959 why “the integration” of Algeria in France, defended by the partisans of French Algeria, was a Utopia: two countries culturally so distant and presenting such a variation from standard of living did not have vocation to form only one of them. Without counting that within sight of the increase in population in the Moslems, it would be to open the door with their massive immigration in metropolis, exceeding of fort far the simple traditional arrival from foreign populations called to melt itself in the French crucible: “My village would become Colombey-the-Two-Mosques! ” “One reproaches me for not having known to keep French Algeria” , will say it in front of Peyrefitte in 1962 , “but it forever be French: it was a colony”.

As of the September 16th 1959, de Gaulle speaks about “the self-determination” of Algeria. In January 1960, the dismissal of the general Massu, who had criticized his policy, causes the rupture with the French of Algeria and the erection of Barricades in the center of Algiers. In January 1961, a referendum however massively validates its policy on the two sides of the Mediterranean. Soon, de Gaulle speaks about “Algerian Algeria” moving.

With the army of Conscription, it makes failure with the Putsch of the generals to Algiers in April 1961. Four days are enough to put in rout the “ quarter of generals at the retirement ” stigmatized in one to its more famous speeches. This attitude caused strong resistances in certain nationalist groups and de Gaulle was obliged to repress pied-noir risings of in Algeria. It was then the target of terrorist organizations such as the secret armed Organization (OAS), which called it “Large Zohra”. The metropolis then became the object of several waves of attacks made by the OAS and was the theater various settlings of score related to the FLN.

In the night of the 17 to the October 18th 1961, the shortly after the assassination of police officers by militants of the FLN, an Algerian peaceful demonstration, still French citizens, who protested against the curfew imposed in metropolis to the natives of North Africa, is savagely repressed: bludgeonings, shots, internment during several days under terrible conditions. The prefect of police Maurice Papon then covers his police officers and the government the whole of his civils servant. According to the report/ratio of the prosecuting attorney Jean Geromini, given the May 5th 1999, there were at least 48 drowned during the night from October 17th to 18th, without counting the people deceased of the continuations of their wounds or their conditions of internment. According to the historian and leader-writer Alain-Gerard Slama and Linda Amiri (which stripped the files of the police headquarter), the total figure is about a hundred victims (L. Amiri counts 100 deaths certain and 31 missings). The remarks made by de Gaulle in the Council of Ministers a few days after the drama are known thanks to the notes taken by its minister Louis Terrenoire, and published by Eric Rossel: the General does not show himself there particularly not made indignant of the exactions made in Paris.

A few months later, the February 8th 1962, at the time of a prohibited demonstration, eight demonstrators are killed by the police force to the Charonne subway and another will die in the hospital. According to the historian Brownish Jean-Paul, professor emeritus in Paris-Iv Sorbonne new and the ENS of the street of Ulm, Charles de Gaulle is “as much responsible for this tragedy than the Minister of Interior Department Roger Frey, the prefect of police Maurice Papon, and all the police hierarchy”. One of the reasons is, explains J. - P. Brownish, “the authoritarianism” of the General. According to the historian Alain Dewerpe, director of studies at the School of the high studies in social sciences, the massacre of Charonne is only one logical consequence of the “habitus of being able” of De Gaulle and of the gaullists, in the situation of the war of Algeria: “repression, even with eclipses, became quasi automatic”, and the respect of the human life does not have anything an intangible principle.

As for terrorist organization OAS, it was repressed by pitiless means: summary executions, torture, parapolices, which did not hesitate to recruit gangsters, like Georges Boucheseiche and Jean Augé. The Cour of state security was created in January 1963 to condemn of them the chiefs, which will be amnestied a few years later (the Court then continues to judge terrorists, until its suppression, in August 1981).
In 1962, following the Agreements of Evian, a cease-fire is proclaimed in Algeria. The de Gaulle general made adopt by Référendum the Indépendance of Algeria, effective in July 1962.

Very irritated by the massive rallying of Pied-noir with the OAS, hour when this one launches a wave of terror and ground burned in Algeria, de Gaulle will have any word of compassion neither in public nor into private for the fate of the million repatriated French of Algeria. He refused thus, like brought back it his minister Alain Peyrefitte, to pronounce itself a speech bound for the refugees.

In April 1962, the Prime Minister Michel Debré was replaced by Georges Pompidou.

In September 1962, Charles de Gaulle proposed to amend the Constitution in order to allow the president to be elected by the direct suffrage. The reform of the Constitution, in spite of the opposition of the Parliament, the totality of the left and a good part of the right-hand side, was easily accepted at the time of a popular referendum (62 % of “Yes”). The General will show himself however disappointed of what “Yes” the majority of the registered voters did not obtain, and which “Not” carried it in thirteen departments of the South.

In October, the National Assembly voted a motion of censure against the government Pompidou, but the general refuses the resignation which the Prime Minister presented to him and chooses to dissolve the Parliament. The new elections reinforced the parliamentary majority gaullist. Of member of Parliament up to that point, the mode became thus, in 1962, authentically semi-presidential, and will remain it until our days.

Foreign politics

De Gaulle had to await the end of the conflict in Algeria to really launch her foreign politics. Indeed, the “Algerian ball” reduced the French room for maneuver considerably and, in a way or of another, it was first of all necessary to put a term at this conflict. The policy of “the national Indépendance” is then fully application.

In 1962, after the attack of the Small Clamart, De Gaulle includes/understands the need for equipping its successor with one legitimacy to the height of that which the History gave him. It thus founds the direct election by the people of the president of the Republic. In spite of the opposition of the left and legal arguments, the referendum is a triumph.

The December 19th 1965, it is re-elected president of the Republic for new a mandate 7 years. De Gaulle is elected only with the second turn of the election, put in Ballottage by François Mitterrand and Jean Lecanuet with 13.083.699 votes, is 55,20%. It is true that it had not made an electoral campaign. Its adversaries reproached him its nationalism and drew argument from an economic conjuncture depressed in France.

On the international plan, de Gaulle continued to promote the Indépendance France: he twice refused (in 1963 and 1967) the entry of the the United Kingdom in the EEC; he condemned since 1964 the military aid brought by the the United States to the Republic of the Vietnam (known as Vietnam of the South ) against the communist rebellion carried out by the Viêt Minh (guerilla supported by the Nam North-Vietnamese soldier), as well as the Israeli response with the blockade of the Détroit of Tiran by the Egypt, at the time of the Guerre the six day old in 1967. There took one of its most spectacular decisions in 1966, when France withdrew integrated military command of NATO, expelling the American bases of its territory, while remaining member of Atlantic Alliance.

With regard to the Europe, de Gaulle was in favor of “Europe of the nations”, where those were to preserve their full sovereignty, and hostile with the idea of supranational Europe. It is what led it to carry out the “Politique chair empties” June 1965 at January 1966.

The December 14th 1965, de Gaulle declared: “Of course, one can jump on his chair like a CABRI by saying Europe! Europe! Europe! but that does not lead to nothing and that does not mean anything. ” However, it is well Europe which fixes the framework of its ambition, Europe which even goes “from the Atlantic to the Ural”, gumming of a feature the provisional iron curtain. Indeed, the pivot of the French foreign politics is the bringing together with the other heavy truck of the continent: Germany. It is the old dream of the French diplomacy which de Gaulle repeats here, while turning the Anglo-Saxon back on the “ S”.
One could be indeed astonished by the intransigence gaullienne with respect to the United Kingdom, particularly. For de Gaulle, as for Churchill besides, the United Kingdom had made only its duty in 1940, and there did not exist French “debt” towards London related to the Second world war. De Gaulle disapproved the privileged relations bringing the United Kingdom closer to the United States since the war, as well as the imperial economic preference which played between this one and the States of the the Commonwealth, making thus difficult her admission within Europe. Also the entry of such “an American Trojan horse” within Europe appeared to him it nondesirable. The British will thus await 1973 before joining the European Union.

The position of De Gaulle vis-a-vis the communist world was without ambiguity: he was completely anticommunist, and had prophesied the fall of this system. “Russia will drink Communism like the blotter ink”. He preaches the standardization of the relationships to these “transitory” modes with the eyes of the History in order to play the part of pivot between the two blocks. The recognition of the communist China as of the January 27th 1964 goes in this direction, just as its voyage in Soviet Union of June 1966.

The relations between de Gaulle and the United States undoubtedly are spiced. In spite of some tensions sharp, de Gaulle will be always with go in the event of “true” hard blow: Berlin or Cuba, in particular. On the other hand, as soon as the Americans start the process of Escalade, de Gaulle takes her distances publicly, in particular by her speech of September 1st 1966 with Phnom Penh vilifying the American attitude in Vietnam, theater of operation which France knew extremely well.

The concept gaullienne of “a certain idea of France” appears especially in foreign politics. De Gaulle draws a force in her knowledge of the French history, which he taught besides with Saint-Cyr military school. According to him, the weight of this History gives to France a particular position in the concert of the nations. Convinced that the international relations rest above all on national realities and the relationship between States, it calls UNO “the thing” and refuses that France takes part in the financing of the operations carried out by the " helmets bleus" against the secession katangaise with the Congo ex-Belgian. It is as State, and in opposition to Great Britain, that France will support the Biafra.

In French-speaking Africa, does not give an opinion vis-a-vis the coups d'etat which follow one another, but gives its support for the modes in place when he considers it necessary, utilizing the French troops in Gabon (1964) and the Chad (1968). On the other hand, vis-a-vis anglophone Nigeria, France supports discreetly since 1967, then openly since 1968, the attempt at independence of Biafra.

Deterrent force

See also: Force of French nuclear deterrence

Convinced of the strategic importance of the nuclear weapon, De Gaulle continues the development of this one, under the protest of the opposition which saw only a bombinette there. The answer of De Gaulle will be: “In ten years, we will have what to kill 80 Russian million . Eh well I believe that one does not attack readily people who have what to kill 80 million Russians, even if there is oneself what to kill 800 million French, to suppose that it had 800 million French there”.

The role of the the United States in this business appears strange. Initially savagely hostile with the idea even as France becomes a nuclear power, the United States conclude, a little quickly, than France is not size for this technological challenge. Kennedy had then promised a help in the nuclear field following the French support on the businesses of Berlin and Cuba, but did not hold its promise… Then, Kennedy proposed in De Gaulle to give him missiles Polaris, as it had done with the United Kingdom. But De Gaulle refused, informant whom he wanted that France masonry itself an army. This reaction surprised Kennedy and Macmillan (?). The nuclear question poisoned the Franco-American relations during all the Années 1960. It was necessary to await Richard Nixon to find a first US president clearly “gaullien”. Nixon circumvented initially the constraining American legislations in the nuclear fields before opening the way of Franco-American nuclear collaboration officially. The large one of work was already made and French the “bombinettes” already extremely effective, the more so as the possible plan of attack of the Soviet Union by the Mirage IV gave a report on the crossing at low altitude of the Iron curtain, according to the official intox, whereas their route was completely different.

François Mitterrand being opposed in a virulent way to the bombinette , de Gaulle did not refuse the pleasure of entrusting the supervision of the project to his/her brother, Jacques Mitterrand. Thus, “what one criticizes, the other will ensure it”, indicated it.

Conversion of the dollars

On the recommendation of the economist Jacques Rueff who saw the space conquest and the Vietnamese conflict to unbalance the balance of payments of the United States, de Gaulle claimed with the latter the gold counterpart of a strong proportion of the dollars held by France. The operation was legal, because the dollar was defined officially as correspondent with 1/35 of ounce of gold. International payments oblige, the United States lasts obtempérer and gold was transferred in France. In 1971, the United States will put an end to the parity to make float the dollar. Following the oil crises of 1973 and 1979, the rates of gold will fly away: the council of Jacques Rueff was judicious long-term.

Business of “free Quebec”

See also: Speech of Charles de Gaulle to Montreal

At the time of a visit of State to the Quebec in 1967 so, officially, taking share with the festivities surrounding the Expo 67 like had it enjoint Québécois the Prime Minister Daniel Johnson, de Gaulle caused the indignation of the Canadian federal authorities, when with Montreal, in front of a crowd of more than: 100,000 Inhabitants of Quebec, it punctuated its speech of resounding: “Montreal Lives, lives Quebec… Live the free Quebec! ”, greeted by a general ovation. That started a crisis with the Canadian government. Following the speech of De Gaulle, who contained a certain number of winks (“But after all, one feel at home, here”, “I will entrust a small secrecy to you that you will not repeat with anybody: on my way, I saw an atmosphere which pointed out that of the Release to me”), Canadian the Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson declared these remarks “unacceptable”. De Gaulle made answer that the unacceptable word was itself unacceptable and unilaterally cancelled the visit envisaged with Ottawa. It set out again forthwith for France, forsaking the Croiseur which had brought it, the Colbert - deliberately selected means of transport to enable him to avoid the protocol which ordered the arrival via the federal capital, Ottawa, thing which it could not be solved to make, having been invited by the Prime Minister for Quebec, Daniel Johnson, rather than by the Canadian government. The goal of de Gaulle was not to cause a “clash” between Quebec and Canada, but rather to reinflate the “French of Canada” vis-a-vis the Anglo-Saxon neighbors. He declared besides in the tread of this visit in Quebec, “I saved to them 30 years”. On criticisms, it had about this word: “there are three categories of people that will annoy. The diplomats, but good, they one is occupied some, the journalists, but they one of fout because they do not write the History, and then the Anglo-Saxons. They never liked me, then… ”.

From the point of view of the Second world war, this declaration was felt as unjust by the anglophone Canadians who had supported free France, whereas the French-speaking, concerned Inhabitants of Quebec of the Indépendance of Canada with respect to the United Kingdom, were less enthusiastic to take part in the effort of war. Envoys of free France, Elisabeth de Miribel and the captain Georges Thierry d' Argenlieu - whose title of major superior of the province of the Carmelite friars of Paris was supposed to be worth the respect of the catholics to him - tried into 1941 to rejoin the Canadians with the cause of the de Gaulle general, with a quite relative success, since the Inhabitants of Quebec voted mainly against the conscription at the time of the plebiscite of April 27th, 1942, without however succeeding in preventing the victory of “yes”.

Charles de Gaulle said to Xavier Deniau, at the time to embark with Brest, “They me will hear, that over there will make waves! ”. One week before, entrusting to his/her son-in-law: “I intend to strike a great blow. That will bard. But it is needed. It is the last occasion to repair the cowardice of France. ”. Then, later, on the aircraft of the return, entrusting to Bernard Dorin: “What has just occurred, it is a historical phenomenon which was perhaps foreseeable but which took forms that only the event could specify. Of course, I could, like many others, to draw me by some diplomatic courtesies or acrobatics, but when one is the de Gaulle General, one does not resort to expédients of this kind. What I did, I was to do it. ”

The government of Ottawa had as of this time to treat with an special attention the claims of Quebec which, extremely of this encouragement which let predict a strong support of France if need be, started to speak to make secession.

This example became today an academic case in Game theory, as well as the crisis of the missiles of Cuba. To take again a word pronounced by de Gaulle in other circumstances: “They would have liked to continue to play belote quietly, but I obliged them to play poker, and there, I am strongest”.

At the time of her traditional press conference of end of the year, in the Elysium, Charles de Gaulle once more justified her gesture of glare by an engaged speech, punctuated by solemn “goes, goes, for them as, it is necessary as France is France! ”.

Armed opposition

Attack of the Petit-Clamart

Other attacks

The attack of the Petit-Clamart was that which was more close succeeding. However was de Gaulle several times (a score?) the target of attack because of evolution of the Algerian business.

September 8th 1961: a bomb ordered remotely is buried on the road of Colombey, with Pont-sur-Seine, but the presidential DS is not damaged.
August 15th 1964: De Gaulle is with the Faron Mount, close to Toulon. An earthenware jar had been trapped of 8 breads of TNT fired remote. Those explode only on August 28th with 17:00: in fact the bomb had been found by the RG which had secretly modified it.

The topic of an imaginary attack against the de Gaulle General making following that of the Petit-Clamart was exploited in the film Chacal (1973) drawn from the novel éponyme of Frederick Forsyth.

May 1968

In addition to the financial reform of 1958, France profits from the “Glorious Thirty” and from the growth started under IVe République. The economic structures are modernized, the standard of living increases. But the growth benefits all unequally, and a certain disenchantment appears vis-a-vis the blocking of the company. The events of May 1968 are the revealing one. As in many foreign countries, the dispute of the students develops as from March 1968. The trade unions and the left-wing political parties benefit from the demonstrations coeds to launch a general strike which will be followed by the workmen. This general strike paralyzes the capacity during May, causing a severe crisis which shakes the top of the State.

Opinion of its own partisans, De Gaulle was completely surprised by a crisis which it does not provide and does not include/understand. Indifferent to the claims coeds and the " crisis of civilization" that they reveal, there he sees at best only one gigantic uproar of young people who do not want to pass their examinations, in the worst case dispute of the authority of the State to be made cease at once. In early May, its only instructions are to repress the demonstrations coeds brutally, against the opinion of several of its ministers who advise the appeasing. Putting oil on fire, the General contributes in fact to the climbing of a conflict which it would have been easy to circumscribe.

After the Night of the barricades of the May 11th, De Gaulle, skeptic, leaves however its Prime Minister Georges Pompidou, returned from Iran, to follow a new policy of appeasing. Pompidou, which has to put its resignation in the balance, wants to avoid from now on the clashes, and in the long term bets on the breathlessness movement.

14 with the May 18th, de Gaulle leaves in Romania, renonçant to cancel a displacement envisaged of long time. However in its absence, the general strike develops and of the million strikers paralyze France, while the Sorbonne and the Odéon are occupied without reaction of the police force. Only with the parliamentary majority and government orders, Pompidou appears become meanwhile the true chief of the country, not judging even more necessary to refer to the General. On her return anticipated of Romania the 18 to the evening, De Gaulle disappoints until the faithful unconditional ones while appearing exceeded and floating, without this promptness and this effectiveness of reaction which usually characterize it. It is unable to choose clearly between prudence pompidolienne and the firmness which it preaches itself. It has awaited the 24 at the evening to speak as a public, and not to announce the measurements already ventilated for several days, which do not meet any need of the hour. " I put at côté" , confesses it at once after having viewed its short speech.

The General exposes, in this short speech, that he intends that the State must restore the order, to maintain the Republic. “The street, it is the disorder, the threat of totalitarianism, " the chienlit" ”. Matter of May 19th, at the time of an interview between the General and some of his ministers, of which Georges Pompidou who brought it back to the journalists at his exit of the Elysium. The evening even, violent incidents burst in Paris, one will belong to the hundreds to wounded and several barricades set up.

The May 26th, the Agreements of Grenelle make between the Pompidou government, the representatives of the trade unions and employers end to series of measures traditional. De Gaulle chairs the Council of Ministers which ratifies the agreements at once, but with surprised of Pompidou and the trade-union chiefs, the base rejects the projections of Grenelle, estimating that it is the whole company which is in question. The strikes continue.

The 27, a demonstration Stage Charléty lance the idea of a provisional government. The very same day, François Mitterrand takes again this solution and announces its candidature for the presidency of the Republic. The political crisis reaches its top. With her visitors, De Gaulle appears exhausted and tired then. He groans on this crisis " insaisissable" (" one does not seize a torrent with his mains") and seems overpowered, out-of-date, discouraged.

The sudden and unexplained disappearance of the Head of the State, left by helicopter the May 29th for an unknown destination, causes stupor and opens the way with all calculations. It passes by Baden Baden where it is received by the Massu general. Does he think of withdrawing himself? Does he want to make sure of the feelings of the Army or simply to take retreat? Does he want to disconcert the adversary while letting plane the doubt about his intentions, and thus take again the initiative? It seems that all these reasons were combined.

In any case, as of its return to Paris the following day, its broadcast short speech has the ton of firmness. It announces the dissolution of the National Assembly there. She is followed of an immense demonstration organized by the gaullists on the Fields-Élysées.

De Gaulle was ready to accept some of the claims of the demonstrators. He wanted to make approve the reforms by referendum but Georges Pompidou persuaded it to dissolve the National Assembly rather. De Gaulle announced it on May 30th 1968, in a speech broadcast, like the call of June 18th or the intervention of 1960 during the barricades of Algiers. The sentences were short, each one or almost a decision:

“Being the holder of national and republican legitimacy, I have considered, for twenty-four hours, all the possibilities, without exception, which would enable me to maintain it” (it was known that de Gaulle had right before this speech be to see in the helicopter the general Massu with Baden-Baden)
“I took my resolutions. In the circumstances present, I will not withdraw myself. ”
“I will not change the Prime Minister, who deserves the homage of all. ”
“I dissolve today the National Assembly”
“I charge the prefects, become or become again police chiefs of the people, constantly to prevent subversion and in all places”
“As for the legislative elections, they will take place by the Constitution in the intended deadlines, unless one intends to muzzle entire French people, by preventing it from expressing itself at the same time as one prevents it from living, by the same means that one prevents the students from studied, the teachers to teach, the workers to work. These means, they are the intimidation, the intoxication and tyranny exerted by organized groups of long time consequently and by a party which is a totalitarian company, even if it has already rivals in this respect”. De Gaulle thus opposed the French Communist party to the Maoists groups, whereas the first seemed already well exceeded by the events. By nailing PCF with the pilori and lending a deliberated subversive aiming to him, De Gaulle breaks with the strategy of Pompidou, which did not cease negotiating with the Party with the length of the month: this last being objectively the ally of the government against the gauchists and for the return to the order.

The end of the speech mentions about a just former declaration, and without quoting it, “the ambition and hatred of politicians with the rancart” and affirms that after to be used “these characters would not weigh more than their weight, which would not be heavy”. For the needs for the polemic, De Gaulle neglects just the 45% of the voices which went in 1965 on Mitterrand to the second tower of the presidential one, or the simple seat of her majority to the legislative elections of 1967…

After a little disappointing speeches which had preceded, France seemed to find its “de Gaulle of the great days”. A demonstration was organized to make during with that of May 13rd 1968 and was credited with a million participants according to the organizers, three hundred and thousand according to the police headquarter. The elections of June 1968 were a great success for the gaullists who obtained 358 of the 487 seats (ever seen in the history of French parliamentarism). Georges Pompidou was replaced by Maurice Couve of Murville in July.

The countryside of legislative occupied the political clouts, while the resumption of work was done gradually. The resumption in hand, authoritative, is done sometimes without care. The bunches gauchists are dissolved, Odéon and the Sorbonne evacuated, the journalists strikers of laid off ORTF (a third of the total staff complement). Committees of civic action, answering the call of De Gaulle, constitute themselves to draw up black lists of strikers and agitators notorious, and the police force even joins again with the brutality of the first days of May (four died to deplore in June 1968). However, De Gaulle profits from the lassitude of an opinion which after having expressed until at the end of May its majority sympathy to revolted, starts to tire absence of prospects for the movement.

The elections however did not redynamisé the capacity enough. The National Assembly, on the right, is also more sensitive to the cold vis-a-vis the reforms however necessary (participation, regionalization, reform of the University…). The Elysium seems more crossed of the French, confidence is not really restored. The ousting of the true winner of the crisis, Pompidou, was badly included/understood, and this last fact from now on figure of recourse and potential successor. De Gaulle is not irreplaceable any more.

The referendum of the April 27th 1969: departure of the capacity

In a bearing referendum on the transfer of certain capacities to the areas and the transformation of the Senate , de Gaulle proposed to introduce representatives of the professional organizations and trade-union within the district councils. Putting all its weight in the Referendum, he announced in advance his intention to resign in the event of victory of “not”. This one, to which Valery Giscard d'Estaing had joined carried it by 52,41% on April 27th, 1969. A few minutes after midnight, the April 28th 1969, a laconic news release falls from Colombey: “I cease exerting my president's functions of the Republic. This decision takes effect at midday today”.

After-capacity

This official statement is the last public act of “the man of the June 18th”: to avoid being implied in its own succession, it spends the time of the countryside in Ireland where it votes by procuration; then it is locked up with the Woodwork to write there its Mémoires of hope which will take the continuation of the Mémoires of war ; it will carry out an existence even withdrawn to it recluse, receiving there only some former collaborators or former ministers at which it preserves regard and confidence.

He also travelled in Spain where he returned visit of courtesy to the general Franco (Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower had preceded it several years before, one semi-officially at the time of its many escapades in Spain, the other officially), informant to regret not to have been able to earlier meet it because of the international circumstances. Even if de Gaulle did not exert then any more of public office, that a man of its prestige will confer admiringly with the Spanish dictator caused many criticisms. André Malraux did not only hide, if it had been held of time when he was with the government, he would have resigned.

Death

The November 9th 1970, as with accustomed, it starts part of patience. With 19:10, it is taken of a faintness caused by a rupture of Anévrisme. He dies in 19:30. The news is not stated that the following day by a short short televised speech of Georges Pompidou. Its death, which according to the expression of its successor, leaves “widowed France”, is the occasion to take the measurement of the part played by de Gaulle in the history of France. The evening of the day when its funerals with Colombey are celebrated and whereas many foreign Heads of State are gathered to honor its memory with Notre-Dame de Paris, several hundreds of thousands of Parisian go up the Avenue Fields-Élysées in the night, by a beating rain, to pay homage to de Gaulle.

Only the satiric weekly Hara-kiri ose a provocative title ( tragic Ball in Colombey, a death) and is condemned.

Its will which it had written in 1952 remains a last slap of in addition to-fall to conventions:

“I want to be buried in Colombey”.
“With my funerals, neither presidents, nor ministers! ” (The , Minister for Finance Valery Giscard d'Estaing, goes there all the same while asserting that it is not as a minister that it comes, but as simple French).
“Just the Compagnons of the Release” (what included Jacques Chaban-Delmas and André Malraux).

All the other official ones, the president Nixon included/understood, are satisfied to attend the same moment with a simple mass in its honor with Notre-Dame de Paris.

“On my tomb: Charles de Gaulle, 1890-19. . Anything else”

Posterity

Homages

The name of Charles de Gaulle was given to many arteries, bridges or important buildings of the French cities: street of General-of-Gaulle with Holy-Addresses (city where the father of De Gaulle is buried), for example. Without drawing up of list of these thousands of communes which thus paid homage to him, one can in particular quote the Place Charles-of-Gaulle (in the past place of Star) and the Charles-of-Gaulle bridge with Paris, the Aéroport Charles de Gaulle (ex-airport of Roissy) and the nuclear aircraft carrier Charles-of-Gaulle. Abroad, with the Cairo for example, one finds the street Charles-of-Gaulle , adjacent with the street Georges-Pompidou, or then, in Quebec, a bridge which connects the island of Montreal to its bank-north, was named in its honor.

A few years after the death of De Gaulle, much men who had criticized it of alive sound started to claim themselves of him. At the time of the 25e birthday of its death, in 1995, a survey published by Le Monde established that 80 % of the French judged the action of the General positively. An emission of France 2 proclaimed it elected by the televiewers “the largest French of all times” (2006). Part of the centrists, left even of the Extreme-left, with the image of Governed Debray, states today to find in him an inspirer. All that made it possible much to point out a famous sentence of Andre Malraux: “Everyone was, is or will be gaullist. ”

Charles de Gaulle is probably the most known French in the world with Napoleon. Statues were set up to him as well with Quebec or London as with Warsaw or Moscow. The communist China keeps a strong public recognition to him to have diplomatically recognized it in 1964. Israel felt all the more hard its crashing to pieces declarations of 1967 that the popular worship which was dedicated there to the man of June 18th could not be compared up to that point, as recalled by Eric Roussel, which with that of the “Father of the nation” David Ben Gourion. The Arab world remembers its criticisms against the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and a Ben Bella paid homage to de Gaulle as with the most valorous adversary of FLN, “that which carried us the heavy blows”, but which ends up accepting Algerian independence. With those which reproached him for being remained a customer of France gaullienne, Léopold Senghor retorted that few Western Heads of State could be praised to have personally risked their life to lead a colony to independence. It is not to the Master of Cuba, Fidel Castro, which did not state in front of the cameras to have found a model as de Gaulle with the reading of her Mémoires of war . The Latin America or the Vietnam still appreciates the destroyer of the American domination, the Quebec the despiser of the anglophone prevalence. Only the the United States have a memory interfered a man who was their ally, but which was also often put across their way, and which seemed to them to symbolize them through nationalists and the excessive claims of a country become a power of second order.

Historical legacy

The years that Jean Fourastié named the glorious Thirty (1945-1975) left to the French memory the one time, if not happy (two colonial wars), at least of growth and prosperity. “We are not richest, we are not most powerful, but I guaranteed to you that we are among happiest”, affirmed Georges Pompidou at the time of usual wishes of new year to the French. However the end of this happy period is to correspond about to that of De Gaulle: difficult under these conditions of separating objectively what is due to the man and with its indicated dolphin of what is due to the economy, the more so as both were not free from overlap.

The first president of Ve République seems on the other hand today one of the large last manufacturers of history , which has as it higher is seen often known to carry out the events instead of letting itself carry out by them. Its nonconventional vocabulary for a politician of the time and this age ( collapses , Chienlit ), its humor (“does one Believe that I will begin, in sixty-seven years, a career of dictator? ”), are its direction of distributed (during a press conference, it answered a journalist whose question was simply “How you? ”: “I am well, but reassure you, I will not fail to die”), his posted contempt of the political parties, his distrust towards a line which did not like it and showed to him in 1969, as towards a left which had never really supported the project of Participation (of paid for the benefits of their company) which was expensive to him, all that led many French to feel for him, was this tardily, the same kind of sympathy as towards Jean Yanne or Coluche. De Gaulle, it was, in a spirit very “Astérix”: “The small one which is not afraid of large”. One will not be astonished by his declaration that its preferred book was Cyrano of Bergerac . And it was dawning one this remark ironic: “At the bottom, I have one international rival: it is Tintin. ”.

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