sign in sign up
<<
Home , Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou

Volume 47 Number 4 Article 6

June 2019

Charles de Gaulle: A Life of Consequence

Jack Van Der Slik

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege

Part of the European History Commons, and the Political Science Commons

Recommended Citation Van Der Slik, Jack (2019) " de Gaulle: A Life of Consequence," Pro Rege: Vol. 47: No. 4, 21 - 26. Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol47/iss4/6

This Feature Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pro Rege by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : a Life of Consequence

Most readers of this review are, like me, cap- tives of the English language. My generation and those who are younger know about World War II and its consequences from countless renditions about it in the English language. I and others like me are little informed by a sturdy literature in French about and French perspectives on the politics and outcomes of that war. For these readers De Gaulle, both the book and the man, are best accessible in scholarly English from Julian Jackson, a distinguished professor of his- at Queen Mary University of . His profile on the university’s website (www.qmul. by Jack Van Der Slik ac.uk) says that beginning with a study of the 1930s’ depression in France, and in all his sub- De Gaulle. Julian Jackson. Cambridge: The sequent research, Jackson has focused on French Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018. politics following that time. De Gaulle represents Pp. xl and 887. ISBN 9780674987210. Published a culmination of his productive scholarship. in the as A Certain Idea of My review essay focuses upon Charles de France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle. Gaulle’s remarkable political career and how he shaped and reshaped the political machinery In France today, Charles de Gaulle is ev- of France. Paying close attention to Jackson’s erywhere. At a recent count, more than 3600 rendition and analysis, I will forgo discussing localities in France have a public space—street, his careful recounting of de Gaulle’s handling avenue, square, roundabout—named after him. of policy change for France regarding NATO, His statue is prominent in and elsewhere. the European Economic Community or rela- The official photo of , the tionships with the , the People’s current French president, shows him in front of Republic of China, the United Kingdom, and the an open book, Charles de Gaulle’s War Memoirs. . Although not beyond the scope of Reminders of de Gaulle and his impact upon the Jackson’s rich engagement with de Gaulle, my fo- remain palpable in all of France. cus is upon the political processes through which de Gaulle managed to gather, manipulate, and exercise unifying resources for leadership in a fac- Dr. Jack Van Der Slik is Professor Emeritus of Political tionalized nation. Studies and Public Affairs, University of Illinois- Springfield. De Gaulle’s life history is a difficult challenge

Pro Rege—June 2019 21 to summarize briefly. Jackson’s book approaches in North Africa. Eisenhower oversaw the North a thousand pages. Wikipedia provides a lengthy African invasion and made peace with the com- article of 63 printed pages on de Gaulle. Let me mander of the French forces, Admiral Francois set forth some of the essentials. Born in 1890, de Darlan. Darlan successfully ordered all the French Gaulle grew up in an upper middle-class family, forces to lay down arms in return for Vichy control the third of five children, in a devout Catholic over the civilian governments in the French colo- household. His father was a professor of history at nies. After Darlan’s death at the hands of a French a Jesuit college. Charles received a military school monarchist, the North African French accommo- education and quickly rose to be a com- dated to Eisenhower, De Gaulle famously shook mander in the during . hands with Darlan’s successor, General Henri He was captured by the Germans in March 1916 Gerard, and the French military joined the Africa and held as a prisoner for 32 months. After the campaign against the Germans. Subsequently, war he remained an army officer under Marshal when Eisenhower led the invasion Philippe Petain during the 1920s and held a staff of , the United States equipped French position interfacing between military planning forces that were organized for a coordinating in- and civil government during the 1930s. In 1937 vasion of southern France. De Gaulle became he received command of a regiment. In 1940 the accepted leader of the French Committee of he saw action as a division , and he led National Liberation. After successful invasions, in his in forcing a brief withdrawal by oncom- late Paris was liberated, the German ing German forces. He was promoted to brigadier forces withdrew from the city, and Eisenhower, as general in , a rank he claimed for the the Allied Supreme Commander, put his French rest of his life. In the middle of tempestuous gov- divisions in the vanguard for the liberation of ernment changes, de Gaulle was appointed min- Paris. Promptly on the scene, De Gaulle relit the ister for “Defense and War” by , flame at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the who briefly became prime minister of France on , on , for millions of June 5. In mid-June de Gaulle was on a mission to liberated Parisians. London while the government in Paris disintegrat- Jackson elucidates how de Gaulle captured ed. Thereafter Reynaud resigned, and Petain be- control of both Paris and the nation. De Gaulle came prime minister and sought an with came before a body of resistance leaders (Consul Nazi that was signed on June 21, 1940. National de la Resistance, or CNR) and there The surrendering French government, headed by launched into an emotional speech: “Paris! Paris Petain, established itself in the small French city of outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyred! [Long Vichy. There, a fragment of the pause] – but Paris liberated! Liberated by itself, authorized a new constitution, dissolved itself, and liberated by its people with the help of the armies allowed Petain to exercise full executive powers of France, with the help and assistance of the in behalf of the nation. From then until the war’s whole of France, of that France which fights, of the end, de Gaulle was the self-proclaimed head of the only France, of the true France, of eternal France” “Free French” and settled in London. By agree- (326). ment with the BBC, de Gaulle denounced the ar- Jackson immediately comments on de mistice on behalf of the Free French. On June 28, Gaulle’s words: “What is striking about the rest de Gaulle was recognized as the leader of the Free of the speech, after this stirring opening, was the French by ’s administration, deliberate absence of any reference either to the and London became the European headquarters Allies or to those resisters (some of them present) of the Free French movement. who had risked their lives so that they could live During World War II, Roosevelt and Churchill this moment. After the speech, [de Gaulle was had prickly interactions with de Gaulle. However, asked] if he would now declare that the Republic the Allied military under Eisenhower established was restored. De Gaulle’s curt reply expressed cooperative agreements with the French military the thought behind every action he had taken

22 Pro Rege—June 2019 since arriving in Paris: ‘The Republic has never scene, the Fourth French Republic held sway from ceased to exist.... Vichy was always, and remains, 1946 to 1958. The French economy, capitalized in null and void. I am President of the Republic” part by the United States funding, (326-327). After that, in a series of moves, de grew, and its cities prospered. However, the gov- Gaulle consolidated his authority by proclaim- ernment produced 21 different ruling administra- ing the continuity of the Third French Republic tions over a bumpy 12- year history. De Gaulle and becoming the accepted leader of France, contented himself in mostly quiet withdrawal, not only within the nation but in relation to the during which he wrote and published a three- Allied leaders of the United States, the United volume Memoir series (1940-42; 1942-44; 1944- Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. Recognition 1946). As the government lost or gave up pieces was accorded by the United States and Britain of its empire in Asia and Africa, successive admin- on October 23, 1944. On istrations could not resolve November 11, the anni- issues in French versary of the World War I Jackson elucidates how de about governance as a part armistice, the French were Gaulle captured control of of France or independent admitted to the European from France. The French Consultative Commission, both Paris and the nation. army in Algeria backed a tasked to discuss the status movement to defeat separa- of Germany after the end of the war. However tion. In the spring of 1958, after months of gov- France was allowed no part in the Yalta and ernmental fluidity, President René Coty called Potsdam conferences by the United States, the upon de Gaulle to lead a deep reform of the French United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. governing system. De Gaulle appeared before the In , after the war in Europe parliament on , “asking for full powers to ended, the French electorate chose a Constituent govern by decree for six months, the suspension of Assembly that would draft a constitution for a parliament during that period and authorization Fourth French Republic. On November 13, it for the government to draft a new constitution made de Gaulle the head of the government. to be submitted by a referendum for popular ap- That was a government destined for failure. The proval. De Gaulle gave not the slightest indication Assembly was divided with three major factions: of how he intended to use these powers and left as the Communists with 158 seats, the Christian soon as he finished.” Following a six-hour debate, Democrats with 152 and the Socialists with 142. “the Chamber voted: de Gaulle was invested by Despite nearly unanimous votes for de Gaulle as 329 to 224 votes” (471). head of the government, policy wrangling was As the last prime minister of the Fourth endless. By the end of December, “the delibera- Republic, de Gaulle had six months of unchecked tions of the commission drafting the constitu- power to undertake reforms. These “resulted not tion, dominated by the Socialists, were heading only in the drafting of a new constitution, the im- in a direction which seemed to weaken executive plementation of a major financial plan and several power even more than in the Third Republic” new initiatives in foreign policy but also a legisla- (380). Ruefully contemplating the prospects tive frenzy resulting in the promulgation of over ahead for governing, de Gaulle decided upon 300 ordinances covering the most eclectic range of an abrupt resignation on January 20, 1946. This subjects.... What made their rapid implementation act of did not evoke appeals to de Gaulle possible were the unique conditions under which from the factionalized Assembly to “return on his de Gaulle had six months of untrammeled power own terms.” Instead the Communists exulted: to govern without parliament” ( 484). “We got rid of de Gaulle without frightening the After a petite team of de Gaulle devotees were population” (384). assigned to create a new constitution, De Gaulle During what might have been a permanent personally chaired a small ministerial committee withdrawal by de Gaulle from the French political to refine the draft. However, “Our only knowledge

Pro Rege—June 2019 23 of the debates [in the committee] comes from sub- per cent of voters approved de Gaulle’s Algerian sequent recollections of the committee members” policy” (529), and De Gaulle’s designs for Algeria ( 488). The discussion of revisions was dominated continued to evolve. At a press conference in by de Gaulle, who “had a gift for suggestive ob- April, de Gaulle spoke of “a solution by which scurity.” The new France would be a community, Algeria would cease to belong to her [France]” not a federation or confederation. In that commu- (530). Briefly, there were fears that a military nity, “All key areas of sovereignty—foreign-policy, insurrection would reverse de Gaulle’s impera- defense, finance—remained with France; and the tive; but De Gaulle took to television to forbid states retained the French flag and the national an- the French army in Algeria from following their them. The result was less than many African lead- recalcitrant generals: “The effect of de Gaulle’s ers wanted” (490). speech had been electrifying. The thousands of In the referendum that followed, there was conscript soldiers who comprised the bulk of the huge participation and “yes” votes from 79 per army in Algeria listened on their transistor radi- cent of the metropolitan French voters. Numbers os.” Without support from the rank-and-file, the are not reported for Algeria and fourteen mem- generals went into hiding: “The attempted coup ber territories. When the new constitution went was over” (532-533). into effect on October 4, 1958, the Gaullists had The rending of Algeria from France was not the largest party, but not a majority, in the parlia- a neat and tidy process. What would be remem- ment. In December, de Gaulle was elected to a bered as the Evian talks began on May 20. They seven-year term of office by an were briefly suspended in June, then resumed in of 80,000 voters created by the new constitution: July, when there were demonstrations and police “There were other candidates but de Gaulle’s violence. An attempt on de Gaulle’s life via a car election by 78 per cent of the electors was a fore- bomb occurred in September, but secret negotia- gone conclusion” (505). The transfer of executive tions continued into the new year: “By the end, authority took place on , 1959. the French had abandoned almost every negoti- Despite de Gaulle’s rhetoric in Algeria in ating position they had started with nine months June 1958 that asserted Vive l’ Algerie francaise! earlier.... On the thorny issue of the rights of the (Long live !), he advocated change Europeans, the compromise reached was that in 1959 via self-determination. By referendum, for three years the pieds noirs could hold double Algerians could choose independence, integra- citizenship before deciding whether to become tion with , or “the govern- full Algerian citizens.... On March 18, [1962] de ment of Algeria by the Algerians, supported by Gaulle announced the signing of the Evian ac- the aid of France and in close union with her” cords on French television. In April, they were (518). Change was opposed by the ethnic French approved in a referendum by 91 per cent of those in Algeria. In January 1960, in what is remem- voting” (543). On July 1, more than 99 per cent bered as Barricades Week, the ethnic French of Algerians voted for their independence. Before (pieds noirs) tried an insurgency that de Gaulle the year ended an estimated 680,000 pieds noirs was able to quiet with a dramatic speech asking departed Algeria for France. for unity. In June, de Gaulle successfully defused In a rather tart appraisal, Jackson character- a challenge from the FLN (National Liberation ized the Algerian resolution as less than a French Front), the nativist movement seeking complete and/or de Gaulle achievement: Algerian independence. At the same time, “The De Gaulle’s “granting” of Algerian indepen- French government revised its statutes of the dence, while avoiding civil war in France, is of- Community to allow membership to be compat- ten counted as one of his greatest achievements. ible with independence. All France’s sub-Saharan This judgement needs to be qualified. He did African possessions had acquired independence not “grant” independence: it was wrested from by the end of July 1960” (525). Half a year later, him. And he only partially avoided civil war.... “in the referendum on 8 January, 1961, some 75 De Gaulle’s caution could be explained by the

24 Pro Rege—June 2019 need gradually to ‘sell’ the policy to the army Jackson is thorough and detailed about de and the French population, but if anything the Gaulle’s pursuit of grandeur in behalf of France. steady retreat, and the twists and turns of policy, In 1960 France successfully tested a nuclear de- exacerbated the army’s sense of betrayal.... [P]er- vice at a site, making itself a peer with haps no one could have done any better, but it is the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain. hard to see that anyone could have done much In 1962 in an exchange of visits with Konrad worse.... De Gaulle’s achievement, then, was less Adenauer, “it was as if de Gaulle was granting to have “granted” independence than to have Germany its absolution” for the historic wars of persuaded people that that is what he had done; the two countries (584). In 1964 de Gaulle grant- to make them believe that he had controlled the ed recognition to the People’s Republic of China process; and to create a compelling narrative that despite the growing United States engagement in explained France’s disengagement from Algeria . But sometimes de Gaulle overreached. and turned it into a victory In the Middle East crisis rather than a defeat. (545) As the last prime minister of between Egypt and Israel, It is Jackson’s sense that the Fourth Republic, de Gaulle de Gaulle sought a four- in the spring of 1962, de nations’ forum, including Gaulle, having proclaimed had six months of unchecked France, to bring about a a resolution to the Algeria power to undertake reforms. settlement. Instead, the matter, “it seemed that settlement was confirmed ‘normal’ politics might resume” (547), meaning by agreement between the Soviet Union and the that the old divisiveness in the parliament and United States. Then President Lyndon Johnson challenges to de Gaulle’s exalted vision of France scoffed: “the four Great Powers? Where the hell in international affairs would recur in French are the other two?” (685). In 1967, when de politics. In August a right-wing movement (OAS: Gaulle visited , he ignored the federal Organization armee secrete) fostered an unsuc- government in . Focusing instead upon cessful assassination attempt upon de Gaulle and Québec and giving a major address in Montréal, his wife. (For a somewhat fictionalized treatment he ended with “Viva le Quebec libre, Viva le in book and film, see The Day of the Jackal.) One Canada francais, Vive la France” (687). Ottawa of the assassins, an extreme right-wing anti-Gaul- was offended, and De Gaulle canceled his visit to list, was executed. Noting the event as politically Ottawa and promptly flew back to Paris. timely, de Gaulle “saw an opportunity to capital- In , simmering issues in Parisian ize on the emotion aroused by the event to carry universities led to street riots, heavy-handed out a constitutional change he had been planning police violence, and strikes by trade for some months” (558). What he wanted was a unions, “and at its peak on 25 May there were constitutional change to elect himself as president several million workers on strike” (720). De by universal suffrage. In a series of actions that Gaulle’s plan to call for a referendum to calm overwhelmed his parliamentary opponents, de the storm was flatly rejected. In fact, “there was Gaulle called for a referendum and new elections a cultural abyss between him and the protest- to follow. De Gaulle got his way with 62 per cent ers, whose celebration of individualism, personal support from the French voters. Parliamentary freedom and self-expression was the antithesis elections followed in : “[T]he of his austere patriotism, in which individual- Gaullists triumphed. For the first time in the his- ism was sublimated in the service of the nation” tory of French democratic politics, one party came (725). But , the prime min- within a few votes of an overall majority in parlia- ister, was able to nurture negotiations between ment. The shortfall was easily made up by a few labor and business leaders, who had seen enough independent conservatives on the center right. The of social unrest. On , de Gaulle delivered referendum and election put de Gaulle in a posi- a plan by radio that would dissolve parliament tion of complete political dominance....” (563). and call for parliamentary elections while blam-

Pro Rege—June 2019 25 ing the Communists for the unrest: tion in the nation’s policy and political activities. The timing of the speech was perfect. Public Very quickly, de Gaulle put himself behind opinion had turned against the students; Pom- a curtain of privacy. In secrecy, de Gaulle and pidou had held his nerve and found a way of his wife departed to Ireland for a series of vis- negotiating a solution; the unions were keen its to remote places. After a year of near ano- to find a deal; plans for a Gaullist demonstra- nymity, he made a quiet retreat to his home in tion on May 30 were underway. The new ele- Colombey: “De Gaulle never set foot in Paris ment was Pompidou’s idea of dissolution, again, apart from an incognito visit for the first which meant that conservatives, traumatized by communion of his granddaughter Anne” (757). the disorder, were offered a chance to express In private, he worked assiduously on a planned themselves through the ballot box. For all these trilogy, Memories of Hope. Only the first volume reasons, the crisis was probably close to a reso- was published in October 1970, a rendition of lution.” (735) the years 1958 to 1962. After initial progress on the second volume, de Gaulle died from a De Gaulle was once more rewarded by the ruptured aneurysm on , 1970. The electorate. Some major opponents were de- French people responded with an outpouring of feated: “[T]he ...won 293 par- grief. Jackson notes that thereafter “the de Gaulle liamentary seats, giving it a substantial overall myth assumed unstoppable proportions” (768). majority, something never previously achieved Celebrations of de Gaulle’s life were renewed in by any single party in the history of French France in 1990 and 2010. Expressing his con- democracy” (737). cluding judgment about de Gaulle, Jackson said, De Gaulle insisted upon going to the French “He saved the honour of France” ( 777). electorate in 1969 with a referendum to restruc- Jackson is to be thanked and commended for ture the French : “[T]he idea was that in- the deep scrutiny he has provided about France stead of being a second legislative chamber... the and the French in the 20th century, in addition Senate would become a consultative body rep- to his penetrating engagement with de Gaulle’s resentative of economic and social forces. This life. Jackson provides an unusual scholarly touch was an idea that had its roots in the corporatist as an appendix to the book. There, Jackson de- thinking much in vogue in inter-war Europe.... tails in thumbnail biographies more than 100 [T]he proposed reform envisioned the creation of contemporaries of de Gaulle who were significant regional assemblies with powers of economic in- to the era in which de Gaulle was the dominant vestment and infrastructure...” (748). Curiously, figure. Jackson’s thorough documentation of the de Gaulle, after establishing a date for a referen- de Gaulle life fills 58 pages of footnote details. dum, April 27, 1969, then began to doubt the Often admiring of de Gaulle, he is not overawed. prospects for its approval. In early April, anticipat- Frequently he characterizes the hero’s missteps, ing defeat, de Gaulle decided upon his departure and he is candid about de Gaulle’s cruel disregard from office. It would be dramatic. In an April 25 at times for those whose lives he wounded. With television address, de Gaulle announced that he all, Jackson has given our 21st-century audience would leave office if the referendum were not ap- a rich account in English of a singular, towering proved. By the evening of the 27th, the no votes figure prominent in World War II events who prevailed. At midnight a message was released, withstood the challenge of by fos- saying that the General would cease exercising tering democracy in Europe thereafter. Those his “functions as President of the Republic” on events and their outcomes significantly shaped the very next day at noon. Promptly, de Gaulle today’s political world and the peace in which we departed from office and any further participa- presently live.

26 Pro Rege—June 2019