12/5/2023 0 Comments Charles de gaulle books![]() Though hard to appreciate for Americans today, in the 1950s a revolution in France was a very real possibility. There followed 12 long years of retirement at his estate, until growing political unrest created a perfect context for de Gaulle’s second opportunity to “save France” by 1958. He was unwilling to play party politics, which he found sordid. Fenby makes clear de Gaulle loved the exercise of power above almost everything, yet he resigned as premier in 1946. De Gaulle’s services to the allies gave him the moral ground on which to press post-war French claims, and he was a readily identifiable national figure unsullied by the ignominy associated with the Vichy regime. According to Fenby, he saved France from devolving into chaos and successfully pressed France’s post-war claims to a place in the new world order created by the United States, England and the Soviet Union.įenby seems on solid ground here. He provided a focal point for French loyalties ― the Vichy politicians were entirely discredited ― and strong leadership while attempting to recreate the French state. After the war he put himself forward as the only reasonable alternative for prime minister of France. In England de Gaulle demonstrated his usual prickliness and paranoid sensitivity to challenge or criticism, while claiming leadership of the Free French bureaucracy, of Free French units fighting in the field and of the resistance at home. Protecting the honor and interests of the Patrie was essential to the fate of Europe and the world. Yet de Gaulle, in what Fenby describes as the key to his success in politics, had a fervent belief both in France and himself as the embodiment of her best qualities. ![]() De Gaulle’s position in England was anomalous at best what he had done was illegal (de Gaulle was declared a traitor by the official French government in Vichy almost immediately). De Gaulle immediately declared himself head of the Free French and true leader of the Republic which, he said, had moved across the Channel temporarily. ![]() Frugal and indifferent to personal luxury ― traits he maintained throughout his long life ― he weathered it all without complaint.Īccording to Fenby, de Gaulle’s first opportunity to “save France” came when he decamped to England after France’s capitulation to Nazi Germany in 1940. After being captured by the Germans, he spent extended periods starving in solitary confinement and tried repeatedly to escape. While leading his troops he was wounded three times (bayonet, gunshot and gas) and famously remained standing when artillery shells were falling about him and other soldiers cowered in the dust. In World War I de Gaulle served with distinction and demonstrated immense physical courage. After completing his military training in 1912 he made a name for himself as an exemplary officer whose behavior was marred only by an extreme self-regard which rankled superiors and fellow officers alike and threatened to derail a potentially spectacular career. Fenby’s biography is a well-written, thoroughly researched exploration of de Gaulle’s life in detail and an overview of French political, social, economic, cultural and diplomatic history during de Gaulle’s lifetime, from 1890 to 1970.īorn to conservative parents from northern France, de Gaulle was trained by Jesuits, who nurtured him in an atmosphere of Catholic piety, reverence for France and traditional values. The subtitle of Fenby’s book implies that for all his faults de Gaulle was the essential man, carrying the burden of his country’s destiny at critical junctures when, without him, France might have devolved into anarchy, been the subject of a military coup or been sidelined by more powerful allies. Yet this blustering, self-important man was loved and supported by millions of French people, who repeatedly backed his policies in referendums. Or, in Harry Truman’s words: “I don’t like the son of a bitch.” Jonathan Fenby provides plenty of negative assessments of “ Mon General,” ― as de Gaulle liked to be called ― ranging from the mild (“In front of him, you feel like a complete idiot”) to the blunt and frustrated (“psychopath”). He had a messianic sense of his destiny (he liked to compare himself to Joan of Arc). His arrogance was proverbial, bordering on the kind of megalomania one usually associates with unbalanced totalitarians.
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