(1890-1970) French patriot, soldier, statesman, and President

Charles de Gaulle [duh gahl'] was born in Lille, on November 22, 1890. His father, Henri, was an officer in the Franco-Prussian War, then taught philosophy, literature, and mathematics. His mother, Jeanne Maillot de Gaulle, came from a literary and military family.

As a boy, Charles enjoyed reading stories of famous French battles. When he played soldiers with his friends, he always had to be "France." After studying at the College Stanislas in Paris, he served a year in the infantry. He was graduated with honors in 1911 from the St. Cyr military school.

De Gaulle was wounded four times during the First World War, and was captured at the Battle of Verdun (1916).

After the war, he served with the French Army in Poland, then taught military history at St. Cyr for a year. He then held various military commands and taught at the French War College. His book The Edge of the Sword (1932) stressed the importance of powerful leadership in war. In The Army of the Future (1934), he outlined the theory of a war of movement, in which tanks and other mechanized forces would be used. Ironically, his theory was largely ignored by the French military establishment, but was studied and used by the Germans during World War II.

Free French Leader

After the Germans invaded France in May, 1940, De Gaulle was put in charge of one of France's four armored divisions. He was made Undersecretary for War in June, but France surrendered to Germany a few days later (June 22).

De Gaulle, now a general, escaped to London. He refused to accept the surrender. Nor would he recognize the authority of Marshal Pétain, who headed the Vichy government. From London he broadcast such messages as "Soldiers of France, wherever you may be, arise!" He also organized the Free French forces in Great Britain and some of the French colonies. In September, 1941, he became president of the French National Committee in London, and by 1943 the Allies had accepted him as the unquestioned leader of the "Fighting French."

Post-War Leader

De Gaulle entered Paris with the Allies in August, 1944, and became head of the French Provisional Government in September. He spent the next fourteen months getting the machinery of government up and running again, but was unable to gain the support of France's left-wing parties. He resigned in January, 1946.

He bitterly opposed the constitution of 1946 because it did not provide a strong executive power. In 1947 he organized a new party, the Rally of the French People (R.P.F.) to reform the constitution, but the party lost its strength after the elections of 1951 and 1956.

De Gaulle spent the next few years in semi-retirement at his country home, where he wrote his World War II memoirs and kept an eye on France's political situation.

President of the Fifth Republic

By May, 1958, France was on the verge of civil war. Dissatisfied French officers, afraid they would lose the government's support against the Algerian rebels, seized power in Algiers, and demanded that De Gaulle form a new government. In June, he accepted President René Coty's request to form a government on the condition that he have full powers for six months.

De Gaulle drew up a new constitution establishing the Fifth Republic. It provided broad powers for the President, who was to be elected for seven years by an electoral college. French voters approved the plan, and the electoral college chose De Gaulle as President in December, 1958.

After another revolt in Algeria in 1960, President De Gaulle arrested many of the same French officers there who had initially supported him. He then negotiated with Algerian nationalist leaders, and the agreement that was signed in March, 1962, ended more than seven years of bloodshed. In April, 1962, at De Gaulle's urging, the French people voted 10 to 1 to grant independence to Algeria.

The French Assembly ousted the De Gaulle government in October, 1962, but De Gaulle dissolved the Assembly. In the election that followed, De Gaulle's Union for a New Republic won an absolute majority. In a separate referedum, the voters approved De Gaulle's proposal to elect future Presidents by direct popular vote.

In January, 1963, De Gaulle and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed a treaty providing for political, scientific, cultural, and military cooperation. That same year he blocked Great Britain's entry into the European Community. In 1964, France became the first Western power to recognize Communist China.

De Gaulle narrowly won a second seven-year term as President in 1965. In 1966, he announced his decision to withdraw French forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and remove NATO headquarters from France. In 1967, he again blocked Britain's entry into the Common Market.

De Gaulle maintained popular support throughout most of his presidency, despite high inflation and currency problems. In April, 1969, however, his proposals for more constitutional changes were defeated in a referendum, and he resigned.

He died on November 9, 1970, after suffering a heart attack.

His Family

Charles de Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux in 1921. The couple had a son and two daughters.

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First World War
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Konrad Adenauer

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