Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany and its puppet state of Vichy France in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy in France. Following the 1958 Algiers putsch, he came out of retirement at the request of President René Coty, who appointed him Prime Minister. He commissioned a new 1958 French constitution which was approved by voters in a swift majority, during a referendum, establishing the French Fifth Republic. He was subsequently elected the President of France later that year, a position he held until his resignation in 1969.
Born in Lille, he was a decorated officer of World War I, wounded several times and was taken prisoner of war by the German Empire. During the 19181939 interwar period, he advocated mobile armoured divisions. During the German invasion of May 1940, he led an armoured division that counterattacked the Nazi German invaders; he was then appointed Undersecretary for War. Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, de Gaulle fled to Britain and exhorted the French to continue the fight in his Appeal of 18 June. He led the Free French Forces and later headed the French National Liberation Committee and emerged as the undisputed leader of Free France. He became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in June 1944, the interim government of France following its liberation. As early as 1944, de Gaulle introduced a dirigiste economic policy, which included substantial state-directed control over a capitalist economy, which was followed by 30 years of unprecedented growth, known as the Trente Glorieuses. He resigned in 1946, but continued to be politically active as founder of the Rally of the French People. He retired in the early 1950s and wrote his War Memoirs, which became a staple of modern French literature.
When the Algerian War threatened to bring the unstable French Fourth Republic to collapse, the National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. He founded the French Fifth Republic with a strong presidency; he was elected with 78% of the vote to continue in that role. He managed to keep France together while taking steps to end the war, much to the anger of the Pieds-Noirs and the French Armed Forces. He granted Independence to Algeria and also acted highly progressively towards the other French colonies.
In the context of the Cold War, de Gaulle initiated his "politics of grandeur", asserting that France as a major power should not rely on other countries, such as the United States, for its national security and prosperity. To this end, he pursued a policy of "national independence" which led him to withdraw from NATO's integrated military command and to launch an independent nuclear strike force, which made France the world's fourth nuclear power. He restored the France–Germany relations with Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to create a European counterweight between the Anglo-American and Soviet Union spheres of influence through the signing of the Élysée Treaty on 22 January 1963.
De Gaulle opposed any development of a supranational Europe, favouring Europe as a continent of sovereign nations. He also openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar. In his later years, his use of the slogan "" at a speech in Montreal, Canada and his two vetoes over Great Britain's entry into the European Economic Community generated considerable controversy in both the Americas and Europe. Although he was reelected to the presidency in 1965, he faced widespread protests by students and workers in May 68; however, he had the French Army's support and won the 1968 early elections with an increased majority in the National Assembly. De Gaulle resigned in late April 1969 after losing a referendum in which he proposed more decentralization. He died a year and a half later at the age of 79, leaving his presidential memoirs unfinished. French political parties and leaders claim a Gaullist legacy; streets and monuments in France and other parts of the world were dedicated in honour of him after his death, such as the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Early life Childhood and origins Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born on 22 November 1890 in Lille, the third of five children. He was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic, conservative, and monarchist family. His father, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of history and literature at a Jesuit college and eventually founded his own school.
Henri de Gaulle came from a long line of parliamentary gentry from Normandy and Burgundy.Ledwidge p. 6 The name "de Gaulle" is thought to be Dutch in origin, and may have derived from van der Walle, de Walle ("from the rampart, defensive wall"), or de Waal ("the wall").Frans Debrabandere: Woordenboek van de familienamen in België en Noord-Frankrijk, L.J. Veen, 2003. De Gaulle's mother, Jeanne (born Maillot), descended from a family of wealthy entrepreneurs from Lille. She had French, Irish, Scottish, and German ancestry.
De Gaulle's father encouraged historical and philosophical debate between his children and through his encouragement, de Gaulle learned French history from an early age. Struck by his mother's tales of how she cried as a child when she heard of the French capitulation to the Germans at Sedan in 1870, he developed a keen interest in military strategy. He was also influenced by his uncle, also named Charles de Gaulle, who was a historian and passionate Celticist who advocated the union of the Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Bretons into one people. His grandfather Julien-Philippe was also a historian, and his grandmother Joséphine-Marie wrote poems which impassioned his Christian faith.David Schoenbrun, The Three Lives of Charles de Gaulle (1966) Education and intellectual influences De Gaulle began writing in his early teens, especially poetry; his family paid for a composition, a one-act verse play, to be privately published. He enjoyed philosophy written by such writers as Bergson, Péguy, and Barrès. In addition to the German philosophers Nietzsche, Kant, and Goethe, he read the works of the ancient Greeks (especially Plato) and the prose of Chateaubriand.Alan Pedley (1996) As Mighty as the Sword: A Study of the Writings of Charles de Gaulle. pp. 170–72. Intellect Books; .
De Gaulle was educated in Paris at the Catholic Collège Stanislas and studied briefly in Belgium. At the age of 15, he wrote an essay imagining "General de Gaulle" leading the French Army to victory over Germany in 1930; he later wrote that in his youth he had looked forward with somewhat naive anticipation to the inevitable future war with Germany to avenge the French defeat of 1870.Lacouture 1991, p. 13
France during de Gaulle's adolescence was a divided society, with many developments which were unwelcome to the de Gaulle family: the growth of socialism and syndicalism, the legal separation of Church and state in 1905, and the reduction in the term of military service to two years. Equally unwelcome were the Entente Cordiale agreements with Britain, the First Moroccan Crisis, and above all, the Dreyfus affair. Henri de Gaulle came to be a supporter of Dreyfus, but was less concerned with his innocence per se than with the disgrace which the army had brought onto itself. The period also saw a resurgence in evangelical Catholicism, the dedication of the Sacré-Cœur, Paris, and the rise of the cult of Joan of Arc.
De Gaulle was not an outstanding pupil until his mid-teens, but from July 1906 he focused on winning a place at the military academy, Saint-Cyr.Lacouture 1991, pp. 9–10 Jean Lacouture suggests that de Gaulle joined the army, despite being more suited to a career as a writer and historian, partly to please his father and partly because it was one of the few unifying forces which represented the whole of French society.Lacouture 1991, pp. 14–15 De Gaulle later wrote that "when I entered the Army, it was one of the greatest things in the world", a claim which Lacouture points out needs to be treated with caution: the army's reputation was at a low, since it was used extensively for strike-breaking. There were fewer than 700 applicants for Saint-Cyr in 1908, down from 2,000 at the turn of the century.
Early career Officer cadet and lieutenant
In 1909, De Gaulle won a place at Saint-Cyr. His class ranking was mediocre (119th out of 221). Under a law of 21 March 1905, aspiring army officers were required to serve a year in the ranks, including time as a private and as a non-commissioned officer (NCO), before attending the academy. Accordingly, in October 1909, de Gaulle enlisted (for four years, as required, rather than the normal two-year term for conscripts) in the of the French Army, based at Arras.Lacouture 1991, pp. 16–17 This was a historic regiment with Austerlitz, Wagram, and Borodino amongst its battle honours.Lacouture 1991, p. 16 In April 1910, he was promoted to corporal. His company commander declined to promote him to sergeant, the usual rank for a potential officer, commenting that the young man clearly felt that nothing less than Constable of France would be good enough for him.Fenby writes that he did promote him to sergeant at this point, which does not tally with Lacouture and other more detailed accounts He was eventually promoted to sergeant in September 1910.
De Gaulle took up his place at Saint-Cyr in October 1910. By the end of his first year, he had risen to 45th place.Lacouture 1991, p. 19 He was nicknamed "the great asparagus" because of his height (196 cm, 6'5"), high forehead, and nose. He did well at the academy and received praise for his conduct, manners, intelligence, character, military spirit, and resistance to fatigue. In 1912, he graduated 13th in his class and his passing-out report noted that he was a gifted cadet who would undoubtedly make an excellent officer. The future Marshal Alphonse Juin was first in the class, although the two do not appear to have been close at the time.Lacouture 1991, p. 21
Preferring to serve in France rather than the overseas colonies, in October 1912 de Gaulle rejoined the 33rd Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant. The regiment was now commanded by Colonel (and future Marshal) Philippe Pétain, whom de Gaulle would follow for the next 15 years. He later wrote in his memoirs: "My first colonel, Pétain, taught me the art of command".
It has been claimed that in the build-up to World War I, de Gaulle agreed with Pétain about the obsolescence of cavalry and traditional tactics, and often debated great battles and the likely outcome of any coming war with his superior. Lacouture is sceptical, pointing out that although Pétain wrote glowing appraisals of de Gaulle in 1913, it is unlikely that he stood out among the 19 captains and 32 lieutenants under his command. De Gaulle would have been present at the 1913 Arras manoeuvres, at which Pétain criticised General to his face, but there is no evidence in his notebooks that he accepted Pétain's unfashionable ideas about the importance of firepower against the dominant doctrine emphasizing "offensive spirit". De Gaulle stressed how Maurice de Saxe had banned volley fire, how French armies of the Napoleonic period had relied on infantry column attack, and how French military power had declined in the nineteenth century because of – supposedly – excessive concentration on firepower rather than élan. He also appears to have accepted the then-fashionable lesson drawn from the recent Russo-Japanese War of how bayonet charges by Japanese infantry with high morale had succeeded in the face of enemy firepower.Lacouture 1991, pp. 21–5
De Gaulle was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1913.Lacouture 1991, pp. 24–5
World War I
Combat commander