DeGaulle, Jackson - B-

    Today, he is considered the most admired Frenchman of all time. During his career, he was viewed as extremely divisive, someone equally loathed and adored. He was at the center of the two most disruptive events in France's 20th century history: the surrender to the Germans in 1940, and the 1962 independence of Algeria. He was a complicated man of vast contradictions.

   He was born in 1890 to a prosperous middle-class, Catholic family. He was raised in the 7th arrondissement where his father was school teacher. He was educated at Christian Brothers and Jesuit schools. As a teen, he decided on a military career. "For him religion and patriotism ...were indistinguishable." He graduated from St. Cyr in 1913. He was 13th in his class, and at 6'4", a foot taller than the average Frenchman. A year later, he commanded an infantry platoon defending the Meuse River. He was wounded on his first day of battle. He returned to the front in October. In the spring, he was wounded again and returned as a company commander in June. Like almost all front line soldiers in the trenches, he realized that the tactics of the generals were leading the lambs to slaughter. On March 2, 1916, he was captured at Verdun after being bayoneted and knocked unconscious by a grenade. De Gaulle spent thirty-two months as a prisoner of war. He returned to France at war's end, and was assigned to Warsaw, where the French were assisting the new country build an army. After that tour, he published his first of four inter-war books, married the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and entered the Ecole de Guerre. He worked on staff and regimental positions in France and in the occupied Rhineland. The de Gaulle's life was touched by tragedy in 1928 when their third child was born. A daughter, Anne, suffered from Downs Syndrome, and the ensuing twenty years of her life were a trial for all of the family. 

  In late 1929, the de Gaulle's were sent to Beirut, for his only assignment in the Empire. He returned home and took a staff job for a council responsible for  coordinating civilian-military war planning. In his writings, he advocated for a greater use of tanks for offensive operations and the creation of a professional army to stand with the traditional conscript army. His ideas on reform drew the attention of a noted politician, Paul Reynaud. Promoted to colonel in 1937, he was put in charge of a tank regiment in Metz. He was assigned to a heavy tank division days before the German invasion in May 1940. While he was trying to stop the Germans, he was promoted to Brigadier General. He fought effectively for three weeks and was recalled to Paris. With Reynaud now Prime Minister, he tried to obtain higher rank and more say in the conduct of the war, as he believed France was losing because it had not adopted his theories of offense and movement.  On June 5, Reynaud appointed de Gaulle Under Secretary of State for Defense. During the waning days of France's war, de Gaulle had the good fortune to meet with Churchill  and impress him with his enthusiasm. Reynaud resigned and was replaced by Petain, who wanted an immediate armistice. De Gaulle chose to go to London where he, according to Petain's derisive criticism, chose to defend his 'idea of France'. "Without the fall of France, de Gaulle would undoubtedly have become a leading general in the French army, probably the minister of defense, perhaps even the head of government - but he would have not become de Gaulle."

  DeGaulle was afforded the opportunity to speak to the French people on the BBC. In a brief four sentence statement he said that the war was not lost because of the Battle of France, and asked all Frenchmen around the world willing to fight to contact him in London. Churchill denounced Petain's government as not of "an independent country" and recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French.  Vichy stripped him of his citizenship and condemned him to death. Throughout 1941, and indeed during all of his time in London, de Gaulle worked incessantly toward the goal of establishing himself in the eyes of the world as the leader of France. However, the endless backbiting amongst the French, the politicking, and de Gaulle's extremely truculent, arrogant and difficult personality eventually put off the British. Harold Macmillan, said "He belongs to a race of unhappy and tortured souls to whom life will never be a pleasure to be enjoyed but an arid desert through which the pilgrim must struggle."

  Nonetheless, with the French fighting well in the Desert War, with the Resistance citing de Gaulle as their inspiration, and his BBC speeches, he cemented his place atop the Free French. The US recognized him as a "military partner." He consolidated power throughout 1943. His obstructive behavior during the North African campaign put-off Eisenhower, and further alienated Roosevelt, who disliked him already. Planning began for the liberation. De Gaulle's CFLN (French Committee of National Liberation) assumed it would lead the nation once back in mainland France. Relations with Churchill and Roosevelt deteriorated in the run up to D-Day. A brief visit to Washington helped de Gaulle with the Americans. As the Allies broke out of Normandy, the CFLN and the communists jockeyed to be the liberators of Paris. That honor fell to Leclerc's divisions which the Allies had landed in Normandy on August 1. They entered the capital on August 24th; de Gaulle the day after. The following day, he made his famous walk down the Champs-Elysee to the cheers of the Parisians. He tried to project France back to the world stage. Churchill provided a major boost when, at Yalta, feeling the need for a democratic force on the continent, he obtained for France an occupation zone, and seats on the UN Security Council and the Inter-Allied Control Commission in Berlin. The British PM reestablished France as a major power. De Gaulle continued to run roughshod over everyone as he tried to establish France's post-war role. Domestically, the primary issue was what would a new government look like.  Frustrated by his inability to control the constitutional process, the socialists and most of all the communists, de Gaulle resigned on Jan. 20, 1946. 

   France moved on without him and created the Fourth Republic.  He did not intend to be sidelined long and created the Rally of the French People (RFP) the following year. Although the party actually won 40% of the vote in 1947 and 1951, it faded as the Fourth Republic struggled through forty-six different changes of government. He retired to the country as "an austere Cincinnatus." During this time,  he declared, "How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheeses." His years in the 'desert' would end with the crisis in Algeria. Although Algeria was part of France and had been since 1830, the Muslim majority that constituted 90% of the population of ten million were no better off than other colonial subjects. They rebelled in 1954 against the 'pied noirs', the French who dominated the society. The rebels in the FLN and the army were soon engaged in a bitter and violent war. Matters spun out of control as Paris lost command of the army which was acting on its own. Fear spread of an army coup d'etat. Parliament realized that de Gaulle was all that stood between them and a civil war and on June 2, 1958, offered him six months of unlimited power, with Parliament suspended. A new constitution was adopted in the fall, elections followed, and de Gaulle became the first president of the Fifth Republic. The strengthening of the executive was the most important change in the system.

   De Gaulle committed to the Treaty of Rome and the EEC, authorized economic reforms, agitated against the UK and the US, and was particularly evasive about Algeria, where the crisis would haunt the first four years of his presidency. The French in Algeria wanted integration for the Muslims, but with the 'pied noirs' still on top. Their motto was Algerie Francaise. De Gaulle wanted no part of 9 million French Muslims unable to integrate into France. He was hoping for some middle ground short of independence that would keep them in France's orbit. He made public his preference for association, thus alienating the army and the 'pied noirs'. Once again, the army considered invading mainland France, but a nationally broadcast speech by de Gaulle took the wind out of their sails. His ministers began direct negotiations with the FLN. The 'pied noirs' and army members created the Organization d'Action Secret (OAS) to stop any steps toward independence. September 1961 saw the first of four OAS attempts on de Gaulle's life. Both the FLN and the OAS committed acts of terror in Paris. Negotiations led to a referendum approving a July 1, 1962 independence with very limited connections to France. By year end, 680,000 'pied noirs' left Algeria for France. The FLN had successfully waged a war of independence. De Gaulle had been as hapless as his predecessors, but somehow managed to convince the country that he had granted the Algerians their freedom.

  One of his policy obsessions was France's need for a nuclear deterrent and was disappointed that the US would not share information or technology. The fact that the US worked with the UK was a further irritant to le Grand Charles. This was part of his ongoing belief that the British had thrown in their lot with the US, and were Atlantic, and not European. Thus, he excluded them when they applied to join the EEC in 1963. And, he continued to be a bane in America's side, criticizing the strength of the dollar, the Bretton Woods Agreement and America's foreign policy, particularly the war in Vietnam.  In early 1966, a few months after a convincing reelection, he announced France would leave NATO.  As he aged, he became more melancholic, less patient and less interested. In the spring of 1968, he told an aide: "None of this amuses me anymore; there is no longer anything difficult or heroic to do." Student protests at the Sorbonne in May were met harshly by the police. The protests escalated as schools and factories were closed. "The social tidal wave rapidly spread from the factories to almost every institution and professional group in France..." De Gaulle's response was reform - yes, but a condemnation of anarchy. He announced the dissolution of parliament and new elections. A Gaullist victory followed, but it was mostly attributable to Georges Pompidou, the Premier. In early 1969, de Gaulle proposed a referendum on regional reforms. When he sensed he might lose, he concluded that it wasn't such a bad way to go. When it failed, he resigned in a terse two sentence communique. 

  He retired to his country home in Colombey. He began to write the follow-up to his War Memoirs. The first volume was published in October 1970. He died of a ruptured aneurysm on Nov. 9th. He was buried in the family plot in a private ceremony. "De Gaulle's death was one of the most intense moments of collective emotion in the history of modern France." He is remembered as 'the last great Frenchman'. "He saved the honour of France."

I came to this long and difficult biography skeptical about de Gaulle, and I still am.  He was disagreeable, selfish, imperiously arrogant and most importantly, never appreciative of anyone, including the US and the Resistance, regardless of how much they did for France. He viewed himself as France, the reincarnation of Joan of Arc. To his credit, he was indifferent to physical danger, was brilliant, and was a first class communicator. He did not believe France could absorb disparate and different cultures, and he appears to have been correct. He was a visionary who was very good at forecasting the future.  He argued against appeasement, anticipated Germany's attack in 1940, predicted every move the US made in N. Africa, and that the US and the USSR would be post-war enemies, characterized the USSR's expansionism as Tsarist and not communist, foretold the break between China and Moscow and  Israel's defeat of the Arabs in 1967. Complex and contradictory indeed. 

 

   

The Day of the Jackal, Forsyth - B

     Frustrated by their inability to assassinate de Gaulle with their own people, the OAS turns to a hired hand. An expert assassin is retained and given the code name Jackal. He begins his preparation by obtaining three alternative passports, a French identity card and has a rifle custom built in Brussels. He makes a ten day trip to Paris to begin to scout out the possible venues, and selects the Place du 18 Juin 1940 where de Gaulle will bestow the Order of Liberation on six men on a specific date in August. The French authorities, while monitoring the OAS and kidnapping and torturing one of them, learn of the mission of the Jackal. By a stroke of luck on the part of the British, they actually learn one of the identities the Jackal will assume and begin to search throughout France for him. He goes from English gentleman to Danish cleric to American student to disabled French veteran, and adjusts his appearance for each. The beleaguered French detective charged with finding him does so at the very last minute. I believe the fact that I've seen the movie in the last fifteen years takes away some of the thrill of this fifty-year old thriller.

Hearts of Stone, Scarrow - B-

    This novel is centered on the Greek island of Lefkas during WWII. The story is related by three people, all of whom were friends before the war. It is told in the first person by Lt. Andreas Katarides, a local, who had joined the Navy when the war broke out and has returned to the island to lead the resistance. Also with a first person narrative is Lt. Peter Muller, a German who had worked on Lefkas as an archaeologist before the war and has been returned there because of his language skills. Eleni, a teenaged resistance fighter who loved Andreas, tells the story to her granddaughter seventy years later. As the two sides battle it out, an interesting question is raised, presumably one that all resistance fighters grappled with. How do you carry on when your successes lead to heinous reprisals? This tale is filled with many overly contrived scenes, but tells a pretty good story. The three youngsters wind up fighting each other, with Andreas dying, and Peter saving Eleni's life. 

Northern Spy, Berry - B-

    This novel is set in Northern Ireland and features two sisters, Tessa and Marian Daly. Tessa, a BBC producer, sees her sister on tv participating in an IRA robbery. Marian convinces her that she is now an informer and recruits Tessa to act as her intermediary with the police authorities. The IRA later asks Tessa to act as a scout. This novel has been praised, but too many of the plot points are not very believable.  That said, it's pretty good on the tensions and hatred that are part and parcel of life in the north.

The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, Kaplan - B

        This book addresses the issues of what propelled the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, and how the arms race has persisted for seven plus decades. In the aftermath of WWII, Truman curtailed the military's control over weapons of mass destruction. The Air Force was required to obtain approval from the Atomic Energy Commission to even put a bomb on a plane. Soon the Cold War altered that dynamic. The Eisenhower administration concluded that the most efficient and least expensive form of containment against the USSR was massive nuclear attack. Once the concept of assuring the enemy's destruction was established, the Navy and Air Force drove policy by competing for funds by promulgating conflicting theories of waging war. The USAF sponsored the growth of strategic bombers and ICBM's, while the Navy espoused submarines armed with nuclear missiles. Jack Kennedy had campaigned on a promise to close the missile gap, but upon taking office learned that the Soviets had four ICBM's and the Air Force had a request in for 2300. The crises in Berlin and Cuba led McNamara and Taylor to back plans to increase the arsenal, while JFK pursued a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the USSR. Kennedy had concluded that the Pentagon's thinking was hopelessly militaristic and unrealistic. Nonetheless, both sides spent the 1960's and '70's increasing their arsenals.  By the time Carter came to office, we and the Soviets had about 1200 ICBM's. Carter tried to slow down the escalation and signed SALT II with Brezhnev, but failed to alter the numbers. When he left office, SAC had 11,000 warheads and there were 7,000 tactical nukes in Western Europe. The Reagan administration ratcheted up the pressure on the USSR with increased weapon deployments and consideration of SDI, called Star Wars by all. Although SDI had no basis in fact or science, it concerned the Soviets. The introduction of Gorbachev to the scene led to meaningful reductions in intermediate range missiles on both sides. It was a first for the Cold War. Planners in the Bush administration were calculating a major reduction in the number of strategic devices when the end of the Cold War afforded them the opportunity to dramatically cut back. However, a potential further reduction bolstered by a treaty with Russia fell apart because the Russians wanted SDI eliminated and the US refused. In the 1990's, the US joined with Russia in securing and dismantling nuclear weapons in former states of the USSR.  The Obama administration negotiated an extension of START in 2010, but needed to agree to additional weapons funding in order to obtain Senate approval. Obama set up the deal with Iran and had hoped to accomplish more with Russia, but ran out of time and up against Putin's intransigence. Under Trump, the US pulled out of the Iran deal and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia,  and did not begin to renegotiate the expiring START. The bomb remains with us.

         This is an interesting read, but one that flagged after the Cold War ended. Nonetheless, whether it was the 1950's or today, the buzzwords of the nuclear strategists* remind us that lunacy and delusion are at the center of it all.

*finite deterrence, mutually assured destruction, 1st strike, 2nd strike, damage limiting, selective attack options, controlled response, spasm reactions, limited nuclear options, escalation spectrum, escalation ladder, throw-weight, megatonnage, etc.

 

The Coldest Case, Walker - B+

        The latest in the Bruno, Chief of Police in fictional St. Denis in the Dordogne, is one of the author's finest efforts. There is an intriguing case going back three decades that is the center of attention.  DNA searches and a facial reconstruction based on a skull lead to the murderer, but matters are complicated by the realization that those involved were actually Stasi sleepers in the west. Add a forest fire and the usual side-bars and we have another delightful addition to the series.

A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe, Krause and Trappe - C+

      Archaeogenetics, clearly a new and evolving science, allows us to now decode ancient genomes, some hundreds of thousands of years old. "History and the story of disease in Europe can be told in an entirely new way." The science is centered at the Max Planck Institute For Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. The ability of scientists to analyze DNA has progressed to the point that analyses that once took years now take seconds. 

     Approximately 11,700 years ago, the Ice Age receded and opened up Europe to migrants from the south.  They came from Anatolia, traveled through the Balkans and spread throughout the continent. The farmers slowly replaced the hunter-gatherers over 2,000 years. As the more numerous farmers took over more and more land, the hunter-gatherers concentrated along the North Sea, and in Scandinavia, where their genes are well-represented today. About 5,000 years ago, migration from the steppes of what is now Russia provided the third great contribution to the European gene pool.

    Farming and food storage led to rodents, fleas and lice and, in turn, viruses and bacteria. The most damage ever inflicted on our species in Europe has been by Yersina pestis, the bacteria that causes the Black Plague, carried by rat fleas. DNA analysis has proven that the plague preceded recorded history and appeared as long as 4900 years ago.  Leprosy, tuberculosis, and syphilis, also caused by bacteria, swept through Europe at different times.

    The history of the world has always been about extensive human migration and movement all over the earth. Over the course of the last few thousand years, that mobility has led to "the branches of the human family"becoming more  intertwined" and our DNA becoming more similar." "The genetic differences between people from Europe and West Africa has been reduced over the past 10,000 years by more than half..." "As human DNA becomes increasingly similar across the globe, constructs such as ethnicity and race are harder to justify than before." "Through the journey of our genes, we know that humans are born travelers; we are made to wander."

Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, Epplin - B

        Eleven weeks after Jackie Robinson started for the Dodgers in April 1947, a young Black man, Larry Doby, joined the Cleveland Indians. The following season, the ageless Satchel Paige was brought on to bolster a pitching staff led by Bob Feller.  The man who put together the team that would win it all in 1948 was Bill Veeck, the Indians thirty-two year old owner. This is their story.

        Feller broke into the bigs as a seventeen year old wonder in 1936. He struck out 15 in his first start and 17 a few weeks later, both records. That fall, he played in a barnstorming game against the best pitcher in the Negro leagues, Leroy Paige, known to all as Satchel. Prior to WW2, both men dominated their respective leagues and reached legendary status. Indeed, whether Paige pitched in a regular season game or in a barnstormer, the attendance usually doubled. In New Jersey, a young four sport athlete began to play for the Newark Eagles, under an assumed name.  Doby simultaneously began to play basketball at LIU on a full scholarship. In Milwaukee, the son of the former president of the Cubs purchased the flailing minor league Brewers. The flamboyant Veeck soon had them pulling in fans and competing on the diamond.

         Feller joined the Navy the week after Pearl Harbor. Doby was drafted the following year. Veeck enlisted in the Marine Corps. All three were in the South Pacific, where Veeck suffered a leg wound that would haunt him for the rest of his life. Feller called the Secretary of the Navy in order to facilitate his exit and pitched five games in September 1945.  As integration appeared on baseball's horizon, the almost forty year old Paige was not being considered. Doby gave up basketball to focus on baseball for the Eagles in 1946. Veeck had sold the Brewers, tried quasi-retirement and then sought to buy a club. He led a syndicate that purchased the Indians in June 1946.  He packed the stands with endless promotions and his own boundless enthusiasm. 

       That November, surgeons amputated Veeck's right foot. The following summer, hopeful of upgrading the Indians, he signed Lary Doby to the club. Unlike the approach Branch Rickey pursued with the Dodgers, grooming his Black players and bringing them along slowly, Veeck signed Doby on a Saturday and inserted him the lineup on a Sunday. It didn't work. Alone, miserable and not ready for it all, Doby had an unremarkable summer. Veeck had had another operation and wasn't around to help smooth things over. Feller, who barnstormed annually against Black players, had the best numbers in the AL again, and continued to tell the press that the Blacks weren't ready for the bigs. 

      For the new season, Doby, a second baseman, was put in the outfield and everyone expected him to fail. Instead, he came out of spring training as the starting rightfielder. He eventually blossomed in center. The Indians began the season strongly, and were in first place in June, but Veeck was worried. The bulwark of the pitching staff, Bob Feller, was not on his game. He signed Paige, who casually strode from the bullpen and made an immediate impact for Cleveland. On occasion, player-manager Lou Boudreau would have Satchel start a game, leading to record crowds. At Comiskey Field, fans stormed the gates. At Municipal Stadium, many games saw over 70,000 in attendance. The Tribe drew 2.6 million fans in 1948. Down the stretch, Paige stumbled, but Doby, Feller and Boudreau, who would be MVP, played well and they finished the season tied with the Red Sox. They traveled to Boston. An 8-3 victory set them up to play the Boston Braves. Feller gave up two hits to lose the first game 1-0. Cleveland won game 2 and headed home. They won the next two, and a picture of Doby and Tribe pitcher Steve Gromek in an enthusiastic embrace appeared in papers around the country. Feller took the mound in game 5 in front of 86,000 fans. Boudreau yanked him in the 6th inning of a tie game. By the time Paige came in to retire the side, the Indians were being blown out. The Indians closed out Boston 4-3 in game 6. Paige was never called on. Doby had the best batting average, .318, in the Series. Cleveland welcomed them home the next day with a parade.

      Doby would be a seven time all-star, and would twice lead the AL in homers, but spent the rest of his 13 year career fighting prejudice in the locker room, on the field and on the road. Feller's career wound down and he retired in 1956. Veeck sold the team after 1949, and Paige found himself on the outside again. Veeck purchased the St. Louis Browns and brought Paige back for three more seasons. At age 47, he made an all-star team. Twelve years later, Charlie Finley brought him back as a gimmick for three innings. The 59 year old shut out the Red Sox. Cleveland began its long slide from the 7th largest city in the US into obscurity. The Indians needed forty years and a move to a new park to exceed the 1948 attendance record.

     This is a fun read for anyone with an affection for the national pasttime and a memory of baseball before expansion. As for the way Doby and Paige were treated, it's just flat out painful to read.

        

Hour of The Witch, Bohjalain - C

 The best-selling author of thrillers goes far afield and writes of divorce and witchcraft in Boston in the 1680's. He provides some interesting insights, but lets the plot reach a very improbable conclusion. When that is combined with a terribly unpleasant setting - that is, a society built on the hypocrisy of religious extremists, - the result is less than salubrious.