Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle  (soldier, politician, deep politician)
Born	Charles André Joseph Pierre Marie de Gaulle 1890-11-22 Lille, France
Died	1970-11-09 (Age 79) Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, France
Alma mater	École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Children	• Philippe • Élisabeth • Anne
Spouse	Yvonne Vendroux
Founder of	Gaullism
Interest of	Elf Aquitaine
Party	Rally of the French People, National Centre of Social Republicans, Union for the New Republic
President of France  In office 8 January 1959 - 28 April 1969 Succeeded by Alain Poher  Co-Prince of Andorra  In office 8 January 1959 - 28 April 1969  Prime Minister of France  In office 1 June 1958 - 8 January 1959  Chairman of the Provisional Government of France In office 20 August 1944 - 20 January 1946  Leader of the Free French In office 18 June 1940 - 3 July 1944  France/Minister of Defence In office 1 June 1958 - 8 January 1959  Minister of Algerian Affairs In office 12 June 1958 - 9 January 1959

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman.

“In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”
Charles de Gaulle

World War II

Allen Dulles had plans for France. There was a long history of acrimony between Dulles and de Gaulle, dating back to World War II and the complex internal politics of the French Resistance.

As OSS chief in Switzerland, Dulles favored a far right faction of the Resistance that was opposed to de Gaulle. In his war memoirs, de Gaulle accused Dulles of being part of “a scheme” that was determined to “silence or set aside” the French general. Pierre de Bénouville, a right-wing Resistance leader on Dulles’s OSS payroll, was later accused of betraying Jean Moulin, de Gaulle’s dashing representative in the French underground, to the Gestapo. After he was captured, Moulin was subjected to brutal torture before being beaten to death — by the notorious war criminal Klaus Barbie, according to some accounts.

Career

After de Gaulle was elected Prime Minister in 1958, he sought to purge the French government of its CIA-connected elements. Dulles had made heavy inroads into France’s political, cultural, and intelligence circles in the postwar years.

"In May 1958, when de Gaulle returned to power in Paris after a twelve-year absence, Dulles flew to Paris for a face-to-face meeting with the legendary Frenchman to see if their differences could be resolved. Dulles had great confidence in his personal powers of persuasion. But the proud de Gaulle refused to see the spymaster, handing him off to one of his close associates, Michel Debré.

A formal dinner was organized for Dulles and Jim Hunt, the CIA station chief in Paris, which was also attended by Melnik. Dulles seemed unfazed by de Gaulle’s slight. But, as French journalist Frédéric Charpier later commented, “Upon returning to the Ritz Hotel, Dulles drew some lessons from the evening, which confirmed his fears. De Gaulle promised to be a tough and hostile partner who was sure to put an end to the laissez-faire attitude which up until then had characterized the [French government].”

World leaders defied Allen Dulles at their peril — even leaders like Charles de Gaulle, whose nation’s warm, fraternal relations with the United States dated back to the American Revolution. After Dulles flew home to Washington, the CIA’s reports on de Gaulle took a sharper edge. At a National Security Council meeting convened by Eisenhower in September 1958, gloomy prognostications were made about the French leader’s ability to settle the Algerian crisis to America’s satisfaction.

The possibility of overthrowing de Gaulle and replacing him with someone more in tune with US interests was openly discussed, but the idea was discarded at that point as too risky. However, by the time Kennedy took office in January 1961, the CIA was primed for a power switch in Paris."

Reston communicated the rising fury in JFK’s inner circle over the CIA’s rogue behavior, in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the French escapade: “All this has increased the feeling in the White House that the CIA has gone beyond the bounds of an objective intelligence-gathering agency and has become the advocate of men and policies that have embarrassed the Administration.”

Assassination attempts

De Gaulle survived a number of assassination attempts, the most famous instance being the one at Clamart. Some sources claim the number is as high as 31.

 

Quotes by Charles de Gaulle

Page	Quote	Date	Source
Algiers putsch of 1961	“An insurrectionary power has established itself in Algeria by a military pronunciamento... This power has an appearance: a quartet of retired generals. It has a reality: a group of officers, partisan, ambitious and fanatical. This group and this quartet possess an expedient and limited knowledge of things. But they only see and understand the Nation and the world distorted by their delirium. Their enterprise leads directly towards a national disaster ... I forbid any Frenchman, and first of all any soldier, to execute a single one of their orders ... In the face of the misfortune which hangs over the country and the threat to the Republic, having taken advice from the Constitutional Council, the Prime Minister, the president of the Senate, the president of the National Assembly, I have decided to invoke article 16 of the Constitution [on the state of emergency and full special powers given to the head of state in case of a crisis]. Starting from this day, I will take, directly if the need arises, the measures which seem to me demanded by circumstances ... Frenchwomen, Frenchmen! Assist me!”	1961
Walter Hallstein	“He was ardently wedded to the thesis of the super-State, and bent all his skilful efforts towards giving the Community the character and appearance of one. He had made Brussels, where he resided, into a sort of capital. There he sat, surrounded with all the trappings of sovereignty, directing his colleagues, allocating jobs among them, controlling several thousand officials who were appointed, promoted and remunerated at his discretion, receiving the credentials of foreign ambassadors, laying claim to high honors on the occasion of his official visits, concerned above all to further the amalgamation of the Six, believing that the pressure of events would bring about what he envisaged.”	1971	Mémoires d'Espoir, page 184

 

Appointments by Charles de Gaulle

Appointee	Job	Appointed	End
Joseph Fontanet	France/Secretary of State for Industry and Commerce	8 January 1959	5 February 1960
Joseph Fontanet	France/Minister/Health	24 August 1961	15 May 1962

 

Event Witnessed

Event	Location(s)	Description
May 68	France	7 weeks of civil unrest in France

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