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.