Charles de Gaulle
Jenny Vaughan
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born in 1890 in Lille in northern France, the son of a teacher. He chose not to follow his father’s profession but to become a soldier instead. In 1908, after a year’s preparation at the Collége Stanislas in Paris, he entered the French military academy, the Ecole Spéciale Militaire de St Cyr. At nearly two metres tall, he must have cut an impressive figure, even at such a young age.
World War I and after
Graduating in 1912, de Gaulle joined the 33rd Régiment d’Arras, under Colonel (later Marshall) Henri-Philippe Pétain. During World War I, he was wounded several times and, in 1916, was thought to have been killed at the Battle of Verdun – he had, in fact, been taken prisoner. Despite five escape attempts, he remained in captivity until the war’s end in 1918.
A year later, he was posted to Poland. There he fought with the Poles against the Soviet army in a campaign that lasted until 1920, postponing the domination of the USSR over Poland (which only became a fact after World War II). For his efforts, de Gaulle, now promoted to the rank of major, received the highest military award in Poland, the Virtuti Militari.
New thoughts on the military≠
He was then posted to the St Cyr military academy, where he taught military history. Marrying Yvonne Vendroux (who would later be nicknamed ‘Tante Yvonne’ – Aunt Yvonne – by the French public) in 1924, the couple went on to have three children. One of them, Anne, had Down’s syndrome and would die at the age of 20 in 1948.
After a posting to Beirut in Lebanon that lasted from 1929 to 1931, de Gaulle joined the General Secretariat for National Defence in Paris. In 1934, he published Vers l'armée de métier (The Army of the Future). This drew on his experiences in Poland and outlined ideas that were new to the French military, suggesting a move towards mechanised troops and specialised army divisions.
This view contrasted with the then widely accepted emphasis on defence and placed de Gaulle in opposition to most of the French military establishment, including Pétain. One of his few supporters was the minister of finance, Paul Reynaud.
Outbreak of World War II
World War II began in September 1939. The following May at Caumont in Picardy, de Gaulle – by now a colonel and leading the 4th Armoured Division – became the only French commander to make the Germans retreat during the entire invasion of France.
At the beginning of June 1940, Reynaud – who was now, briefly, prime minister – promoted de Gaulle to brigadier-general and appointed him under-secretary of state for national defence and war, in charge of coordinating military activity with the United Kingdom.
On 16 June, de Gaulle flew from a meeting in London to Bordeaux, where the French government had moved following the German invasion. There he discovered that Reynaud had resigned and that Pétain, who had taken over, was seeking an armistice with Germany. This was the beginning of the notorious collaborationist Vichy regime, named after the small spa town that became the seat of government.
De Gaulle flew back to London the next day, carrying with him 100,000 gold francs given to him secretly by Reynaud. During the flight, the aircraft ran out of petrol and, with two minutes to spare, had to make a forced landing in the Channel Islands.
In London on 18 June, de Gaulle broadcast to the French, via the BBC, an exhortation not to give in to the Germans or Vichy: ‘Whatever happens, the flame of the French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished!’ Newspapers in the parts of France that were not yet occupied carried a transcript of what is still considered one of the most famous speeches in French history. This and other subsequent calls for resistance led the Vichy regime to sentence De Gaulle to death in absentia in August 1940.
The Free French
De Gaulle began to organise the Free French forces – the Forces Françaises Libres (FFL) – and, by the end of June, the British prime minister Winston Churchill acknowledged him as leader of the Free French.
On 27 October, in Brazzaville in what is now Congo (then part of French Equatorial Africa), de Gaulle also set up the Conseil de Défense de l’Empire (Empire Defence Council). However, during the early part of the war, he operated from London. At first, things did not go well. He was barely known in his own country and, despite the gold from Reynaud, had almost no money. (It is said that, at the time he began to mobilise the Free French, he had only 14 shillings – less than a pound.) But de Gaulle was nothing if not a determined patriot and totally devoted to France, and he eventually managed to raise a force of about 4,000 exiled French soldiers and sailors.
He at first hoped to set up a base in the French territory of Senegal, but an attempt on the part of the Free French and British to take the Senegalese port of Dakar ended in failure. This blow to recruitment was followed in July 1941 by an even larger one, when, after issuing a warning, the British sank most of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in Algeria, to prevent it falling into German hands. More than 1,000 French sailors were killed.
A government in exile
Despite this, the Free French forces gradually grew in number and, starting in 1941, took part in British-controlled operations against the Italians in Libya and Egypt, and helped defeat the Vichy forces in Syria and Lebanon.
De Gaulle’s Comité National Français (French National Committee), set up on 24 September 1941, was recognised by the Allies as a government-in-exile. Operating from a house in London’s Carlton Gardens, the Committee aimed to defend the interests of France within the Allied camp.
Coordinating the Resistance
By 1942, resistance to Germany within France was growing, and de Gaulle changed the name of his fighting organisation to the Forces Françaises Combattants. He sent the Resistance leader Jean Moulin back to France, with the aim of coordinating the eight major resistance groups within the Conseil National de Résistance (CNR, National Resistance Council). Moulin had considerable success, but was captured by the Germans and died under torture in July 1943.
On 3 June 1943, de Gaulle, now based in Algiers, renamed the CNR the Comité Français de la Libération Nationale (French Committee of National Liberation, or FCNL), and initially chaired it jointly with General Henri Giraud, then in command of all French armed forces in Africa. Despite strong backing by the Americans, Giraud was removed from the co-presidency in November, and the following April, he was virtually forced by de Gaulle to retire as commander-in-chief.
In 1943, Free French troops – now more than 100,000 strong – fought in the successful Anglo-American campaign in Italy. By the following year, their number had tripled and they were ready to invade Normandy with the British and Americans.
D-Day
De Gaulle’s relationships with Churchill and the US president Franklin Roosevelt were always difficult. Roosevelt, in particular, was keen to promote Giraud as leader of the Free French, but by 1944, de Gaulle’s position was undisputed.
Although he was kept out of the planning for D-Day, it was recognised that de Gaulle’s presence was needed for the invasion of Normandy. He returned to Britain from Algiers on 4/5 June 1944, the night before the invasion.
On 14 June, de Gaulle landed in the liberated town of Bayeux in Normandy, while the Free French 2nd Armoured Division headed the Allied drive to Paris. The Free French 1st Army also took part in the Allies’ invasion of southern France in August.
Provisional government and resignation
De Gaulle entered Paris in triumph on 26 August 1944. In October, Churchill and Roosevelt recognised the FCNL as the Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Français (Provisional Government of the French Republic) with General de Gaulle as its head.
He formed a government of national unity on 6 September 1945 and, in October, the National Assembly was elected. However, subsequent disagreements with this body led him to resign in January 1946.
On 16 June 1946, in a speech at Bayeux, de Gaulle set out his ideas for a new constitution for France, which put him in clear opposition to the National Assembly. In 1947, he launched a movement and, later, a party: the Rassamblement du Peuple de France (The Rally of the People of France). His ideas comprised essentially what is still commonly known as ‘Gaullism’ – a strong executive, clear separation of powers and an emphasis on the interests of France over those of any other country or group.
Failing to win enough support to challenge the government, he withdrew to his home in eastern France, in the small town of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises. There, he wrote his Mémoires de Guerre (War Memoirs).
The birth of the Fifth Republic
Throughout this period, the government of France’s Fourth Republic was in difficulty. Indochina had fallen to Japan during the war, and France was attempting to regain its control over it. But it was failing, and a particularly humiliating defeat in 1954 at Dien Ben Phu resulted in French withdrawal and the division of the country into North and South Vietnam.
Even worse was the prospect of losing Algeria, where there was a large community of French settlers. A bitter war of independence began in 1954, with hundreds of thousands of French troops involved in fighting the Algerian Front de Libération National (FLN).
Deciding to re-enter politics, de Gaulle became premier on 1 June 1958. He had been given six months’ emergency powers and a mandate to draw up a new constitution, the main feature of which was a strong, centralised executive. This was put to a referendum on 28 September and received overwhelming support. As a result, the following January de Gaulle became president of the newly created Fifth Republic.
Leaving Algeria
De Gaulle negotiated independence with most of the former French colonies and territories, and knew that this was the only solution for Algeria, too. In January 1961, he organised a referendum on self-determination. He gained overwhelming support, but the supporters of a French Algeria – largely the descendents of French settlers there – resisted, launching a coup that lasted just four days. They had already formed the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS, Secret Army Organisation), which carried out a terror campaign in both Algeria and France, making several attempts to assassinate de Gaulle.
In March 1962, negotiations between France and the FLN culminated with the signing of the Evian accords, which granted independence to Algeria. Thousands of settlers, most of them furious with de Gaulle, then migrated to France.
Even after independence, the violence continued, with an FLN massacre of pro-French Algerians in 1962 and yet another OAS assassination attempt on de Gaulle on 22 August the same year. (This became the basis of the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal.)
An independent line
In 1965, France held its first presidential election by universal suffrage. De Gaulle, initially ambivalent about standing, eventually won a second seven-year term in a second-round run-off against the socialist François Mitterrand.
With the problem of Algeria behind him, de Gaulle sought a place on the world stage. He had already shown himself determined to take an independent line in world politics, exemplified by his support for an autonomous nuclear programme (the first French atomic bomb had been exploded in 1960). At the same time, he was committed to Europe, building up an especially close relationship with West Germany.
In January 1964, despite US opposition, he had France recognise the People’s Republic of China. Uneasy about the growing power of the United States, he began a gradual withdrawal of France from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), completed in 1966. The same year he visited Vietnam and spoke out against its war with the US.
De Gaulle’s suspicion of the US spread to the Americans’ allies. It was behind his opposition to the entry of the UK into the European Economic Community: he had already vetoed its entry in 1963 and did so again in 1967. His nationalistic instincts were also evident when, in the same year, he visited Québec and offered support to the French separatist movement in Canada with a rousing speech that ended ‘Vive le Québec libre!’
Last years
In March 1968, the newspaper Le Monde announced that ‘La France s’ennuie’ (France is bored). The boredom was not to last long.
Two months later, students demonstrated on the streets of Paris in what became a series of riots. Disaffection spread to left-wing parties and trade unions, culminating in a general strike. These ‘evenements’, as they became known, were seen by de Gaulle as a threat to the very fabric of France.
Negotiations with the trade unions brought the strike to an end and the Gaullists were victorious in the following election. However, this was widely seen as a vote for calm rather than one in support of de Gaulle and his policies. In 1969, almost as if to test this theory, he announced a referendum, mainly on the issue of regional reorganisation. It was understood that, if the referendum were lost, de Gaulle would resign.
It was, and on 28 April 1969 he left power and retreated to his home in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, where he died suddenly on 9 November 1970.
Jenny Vaughan is a writer and editor who lives in north London.
Find out more
Websites
Charles de Gaulle – the man who stood alone
www.christopherlong.co.uk
This well-written article by Christopher Long – which first appeared in London Portrait Magazine in June 1984 and can be found by clicking on 'General Charles de Gaulle' in the right-hand column – looks back on the great man's wartime career.
A Critical Evaluation of Charles de Gaulle’s Handling of the Algerian Insurrection
www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=22721
This essay concludes that de Gaulle’s policy on Algeria was successful because of the value he placed on popular democratic support.
De Gaulle and Gaullism
www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/contem/gaulle.htm
The French leader’s political career and foreign policy.
Books
The Last Great Frenchman: A life of General de Gaulle by Charles Williams (Wiley, 1997)
Gives insight into the French leader’s relationships with Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Kissinger. Also contrasts the emotional, affectionate private man with the image of the cold, ruthless autocrat that de Gaulle presented to the world. Written by Lord Williams of Elvel, deputy leader of the opposition in the House of Lords.
Get this book
De Gaulle by Julian Jackson (Haus Publishing, 2003)
Part of the ‘Life and Times’ series, this compact biography gives a concise and accessible account of the life and work of the French politician.
Get this book
