Charles de Gaulle

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 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. The name 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"). De Gaulle was educated in Paris at the Collège Stanislas and studied briefly in Belgium. 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 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. 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. He 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. It was used extensively for strike-breaking and 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 , 1910 De Gaulle won a place at Saint-Cyr in 1909. His class ranking was mediocre (119th out of 221). This was a historic regiment with Austerlitz, Wagram, and Borodino amongst its battle honours. 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. 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. He was nicknamed "the great asparagus" because of his height (196 cm, 6'5"), high forehead, and nose. 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. Preferring to serve in France rather than the overseas colonies, in October 1912 he 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". De Gaulle was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1913. ==World War I==

Combat commander commemorating the place where Charles de Gaulle, then an infantry lieutenant, was wounded in 1914 When war broke out in France in early August 1914, the 33rd Regiment, considered one of the best fighting units in France, was immediately thrown into checking the German advance at Dinant. However, the French Fifth Army commander, General Charles Lanrezac, remained wedded to 19th-century battle tactics, throwing his units into pointless bayonet charges against German artillery, incurring heavy losses. He rejoined his regiment in October, as commander of the 7th company. Many of his former comrades were already dead. In December he became regimental adjutant. The wound incapacitated him for four months and later forced him to wear his wedding ring on the right hand. In August he commanded the 10th company before returning to duty as regimental adjutant. On 3 September 1915 his rank of captain became permanent. In late October, he returned to command of 10th company. Prisoner De Gaulle spent 32 months in six different prisoner camps, but he spent most time in the , where his treatment was satisfactory. In Ingolstadt were also journalist Remy Roure, who would eventually become a political ally of de Gaulle, and Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a future commander of the Red Army. De Gaulle became acquainted with Tukhachevsky, whose theories about a fast-moving, mechanized army closely resembled his. He also wrote his first book, ''Discorde chez l'ennemi (The Enemy's House Divided)'', analysing the divisions within the German forces. The book was published in 1924. In letters to his parents, he constantly spoke of his frustration that the war was continuing without him. As the war neared its end, he grew depressed that he was playing no part in the victory, but he remained in captivity until the armistice. On 1 December 1918, three weeks later, he returned to his father's house in the Dordogne to be reunited with his three brothers, who had all also served in the army. == Between the wars ==

Early 1920s: Poland and staff college After the armistice, de Gaulle served with the staff of the French Military Mission to Poland as an instructor of Poland's infantry during its war with communist Russia (1919–1921). He distinguished himself in operations near the River Zbrucz, with the rank of major in the Polish army, and won Poland's highest military decoration, the Virtuti Militari. He studied at the École de Guerre (staff college) from November 1922 to October 1924. Here he clashed with his instructor Colonel Moyrand by arguing for tactics based on circumstances rather than doctrine, and after an exercise in which he had played the role of commander, he refused to answer a question about supplies, replying "de minimis non curat praetor" (roughly: "a leader does not concern himself with trivia") before ordering the responsible officer to answer Moyrand. He obtained respectable, but not outstanding grades on many of his assessments. Moyrand wrote in his final report that he was "an intelligent, cultured and serious-minded officer; has brilliance and talent" but criticised him for not deriving as much benefit from the course as he should have, and for his arrogance: his "excessive self-confidence", his harsh dismissal of the views of others "and his attitude of a King in exile". Having entered 33rd out of 129, he graduated in 52nd place, with a grade of assez bien ("good enough"). He was posted to Mainz to help supervise supplies of food and equipment for the French Army of Occupation. Mid-1920s: Ghostwriter for Pétain De Gaulle's career was saved by Pétain, who arranged for his staff college grade to be amended to bien ("good"—but not the "excellent" needed for a general staff posting). De Gaulle disapproved of Pétain's decision to take command in Morocco in 1925 (he was later known to remark that "Marshal Pétain was a great man. He died in 1925, but he did not know it") and of what he saw as the lust for public adulation of Pétain and his wife. In 1925 de Gaulle began to cultivate Joseph Paul-Boncour, his first political patron. On 1 December 1925 he published an essay on the "Historical Role of French Fortresses". This was a popular topic because of the Maginot Line which was then being planned, but he argued that the aim of fortresses should be to weaken the enemy, not to economise on defence. In October 1926 he returned to his duties with the Headquarters of the Army of the Rhine. De Gaulle had sworn that he would never return to the École de Guerre except as commandant, but at Pétain's invitation, and introduced to the stage by his patron, he delivered three lectures there in April 1927: "Leadership in Wartime", "Character", and "Prestige". These later formed the basis for his book The Edge of the Sword (1932). Late-1920s: Trier and Beirut After spending twelve years as a captain, a normal period, de Gaulle was promoted to commandant (major) on 25 September 1927. The breach between de Gaulle and Pétain over the ghost-writing of Le Soldat had deepened in 1928. Pétain brought in a new ghostwriter, Colonel Audet, who was unwilling to take on the job and wrote to de Gaulle in some embarrassment to take over the project. Pétain was quite friendly about the matter but did not publish the book. In 1929 Pétain did not use de Gaulle's draft text for his eulogy for the late Ferdinand Foch, whose seat at the Académie Française he was assuming. There was apparently a threat of mass resignation of the faculty were he appointed. There was talk of a posting to Corsica or North Africa, but on Pétain's advice he accepted a two-year posting to Lebanon and Syria. 1930s: Staff officer In the spring of 1931, as his posting in Beirut drew to a close, de Gaulle once again asked Pétain for a posting to the École de Guerre. Pétain tried to obtain an appointment for him as Professor of History there, but once again the faculty would not have him. Instead de Gaulle, drawing on plans he had drawn up in 1928 for reform of that institution, asked Pétain to create a special post for him which would enable him to lecture on "the Conduct of War" both to the École de Guerre and to the Centre des Hautes Études Militaires (CHEM – a senior staff college for generals, known as the "school for marshals"), to civilians at the École Normale Supérieure, and to civil servants. Pétain instead advised him to apply for a posting to the Secrétariat Général du Conseil Supérieur de la Défense Nationale (SGDN – General Secretariat of the Supreme War Council) in Paris. Pétain promised to lobby for the appointment, which he thought would be good experience for him. De Gaulle was posted to SGDN in November 1931, initially as a "drafting officer". After studying arrangements in the US, Italy, and Belgium, de Gaulle drafted a bill for the organisation of the country in wartime. He made a presentation about his bill to the CHEM. The bill passed the Chamber of Deputies but failed in the Senate. Early 1930s: Proponent of armoured warfare Unlike Pétain, de Gaulle believed in the use of tanks and rapid maneuvers rather than trench warfare. In 1934 de Gaulle wrote ''Vers l'Armée de Métier (Towards a Professional Army''). He proposed mechanization of the infantry, with stress on an élite force of 100,000 men and 3,000 tanks. The book imagined tanks driving around the country like cavalry. De Gaulle's mentor Emile Mayer was somewhat more prophetic than he was about the future importance of air power on the battlefield. Such an army would both compensate for France's population shortage, and be an efficient tool to enforce international law, particularly the Treaty of Versailles. He also thought it would be a precursor to a deeper national reorganisation, and wrote that "a master has to make his appearance [...] whose orders cannot be challenged – a man upheld by public opinion". Only 700 copies were sold in France; the claim that thousands of copies were sold in Germany is thought to be an exaggeration. De Gaulle used the book to widen his contacts among journalists, notably with André Pironneau, editor of ''L'Écho de Paris''. The book attracted praise across the political spectrum, apart from the hard left who were committed to the Republican ideal of a citizen army. De Gaulle's views attracted the attention of the maverick politician Paul Reynaud, to whom he wrote frequently, sometimes in obsequious terms. Reynaud first invited him to meet him on 5 December 1934. De Gaulle was deeply focused on his career at this time. There is no evidence that he was tempted by fascism, and there is little evidence of his views either on domestic upheavals in 1934 and 1936 or the many foreign policy crises of the decade. He approved of the rearmament drive which the Popular Front government began in 1936, although French military doctrine remained that tanks should be used in penny packets for infantry support (ironically, in 1940 it would be German panzer units that would be used in a manner similar to what de Gaulle had advocated). A rare insight into de Gaulle's political views is a letter to his mother warning that war with Germany was inevitable and reassuring her that Pierre Laval's pact with the USSR in 1935 was for the best, likening it to Francis I's alliance with the Turks against Emperor Charles V. Late 1930s: Tank regiment From April 1936, whilst still in his staff position at SGDN, de Gaulle was a lecturer to generals at CHEM. In 1937 General Bineau, who had taught him at Saint-Cyr, wrote on his report on his lectureship at CHEM that he was highly able and suitable for high command in the future, but that he hid his attributes under "a cold and lofty attitude". By now de Gaulle was becoming a well-known figure, known as "Colonel Motor(s)". == World War II ==

Division commander At the outbreak of World War II, de Gaulle was put in command of the French Fifth Army's tanks (five scattered battalions, largely equipped with R35 light tanks) under General Victor Bourret in Alsace. On 12 September 1939 he attacked at Bitche, simultaneously with the Saar Offensive. He wrote a paper ''L'Avènement de la force mécanique (The coming of the Armoured Force)'' which he sent to General Georges (commander-in-chief on the northeast front – who was not especially impressed) and the politician Leon Blum. Daladier, Prime Minister at the time, was too busy to read it. In late February 1940, Reynaud told de Gaulle that he had been earmarked for command of an armoured division as soon as one became available. Early in 1940 (the exact date is uncertain), de Gaulle proposed to Reynaud that he be appointed Secretary-General of the War Council, which would in effect make him the government's military adviser. When Reynaud became prime minister in March, he was reliant on Daladier's backing, so the job went instead to the politician Paul Baudouin. In late March, Reynaud told de Gaulle that he would be given command of the 4th Armoured Division, due to form by 15 May. The government appeared likely to be restructured, as Daladier and Maurice Gamelin (commander-in-chief) were under attack in the aftermath of the Allied defeat in Norway, and had this happened de Gaulle, who on 3 May, was still lobbying Reynaud for a restructuring of the control of the war, might well have joined the government. By 7 May he was assembling the staff of his new division. Battle of France The Germans attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, and France on 10 May. That day, with three tank battalions assembled, less than a third of his paper strength, he was summoned to headquarters and told to attack to gain time for General Robert Touchon's Sixth Army to redeploy from the Maginot Line to the Aisne. General Georges told him it was his chance to implement his ideas. De Gaulle attacked the German-held village at Montcornet, a key road junction near Laon. The attack began around 04:30 on 17 May. Outnumbered and without air support, he lost 23 of his 90 vehicles to mines, anti-tank weapons, and Stukas. On 18 May he was reinforced by two fresh regiments of armoured cavalry, bringing his strength to 150 vehicles. He attacked again on 19 May and his forces were once again devastated. He ignored orders from General Georges to withdraw, and in the early afternoon demanded two more divisions from Touchon, who refused. Although de Gaulle's tanks forced German infantry to retreat to Caumont, the action brought only temporary relief and did little to slow the spearhead of the German advance. Nevertheless, it was one of the few successes the French enjoyed while suffering defeats across the country. He delayed his retreat until 20 May. On 21 May, at the request of propaganda officers, he gave a talk on French radio about his recent attack. In recognition for his efforts de Gaulle was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general on 23 May 1940. Later, De Gaulle attacked the German bridgehead at Abbeville on 28–29 May, taking around 300 German prisoners in the last attempt to cut an escape route for the Allied forces. On 2 June he sent a memo to Weygand vainly urging that the French armoured divisions be consolidated from four weak divisions into three stronger ones and concentrated into an armoured corps under his command. He made the same suggestion to Reynaud. with particular responsibility for coordination with the British. Weygand objected to the appointment, thinking him "a mere child". Pétain (deputy prime minister) was also displeased and told Reynaud the story of the ghost-writing of Le Soldat. On 8 June, de Gaulle visited Weygand, who believed it was "the end" and that after France was defeated Britain would soon sue for peace. A day later, de Gaulle flew to London and met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill for the first time. It was thought that half a million men could be evacuated to French North Africa, provided the British and French navies and air forces coordinated their efforts. Either at this meeting or on 16 June, he urged Churchill in vain to throw more Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft into the Battle of France but conceded that Churchill was right to refuse. On 11 June, de Gaulle drove to Arcis-sur-Aube and offered General Charles Huntziger Weygand's job as Commander-in-Chief. Huntziger accepted in principle, but de Gaulle was unable to persuade Reynaud to sack Weygand. On 13 June, de Gaulle attended another Anglo-French conference at Tours with Churchill, Lord Halifax, Lord Beaverbrook, Edward Spears, Sir Hastings Ismay, and Sir Alexander Cadogan. De Gaulle was dissuaded from resigning by the Interior Minister Georges Mandel, who argued that the war was just beginning, and that de Gaulle needed to keep his reputation unsullied. Nevertheless, at around 9:00 on 17 June, de Gaulle flew to London on a British aircraft with Spears. De Gaulle later told André Malraux of the mental anguish which his flight to London – a break with the French Army and with the recognised government, which would inevitably be seen as treason by many – had caused him. Leader of the Free French in exile Appeal from London during the warDe Gaulle landed at Heston Airport soon after 12:30 on 17 June 1940. He saw Churchill at around 15:00 and Churchill offered him broadcast time on BBC. They both knew about Pétain's broadcast earlier that day that stated that "the fighting must end" and that he had approached the Germans for terms. That evening de Gaulle dined with Jean Monnet and denounced Pétain's "treason". The next day the British Cabinet (Churchill was not present, as it was the day of his "Finest Hour" speech) were reluctant to agree to de Gaulle's giving a radio address, as Britain was still in communication with the Pétain government about the fate of the French fleet. Duff Cooper (minister of information) had an advance copy of the address, to which there were no objections. The cabinet eventually agreed after individual lobbying, as indicated by a handwritten amendment to the cabinet minutes. Few listened to the 18 June speech; the speech was published in some newspapers in mainland France. It was largely aimed at French soldiers who were in Britain after being evacuated from Norway and Dunkirk; most showed no interest in fighting for de Gaulle's Free French Forces and were repatriated to France to become German prisoners of war. The small audience of the 18 June appeal grew for later speeches, and the press by early August described Free French military as fighting under de Gaulle's command, although few in France knew anything about him. The Vichy regime had already sentenced de Gaulle to four years' imprisonment; on 2 August 1940 he was condemned to death by court martial in absentia, although Pétain commented that he would ensure that the sentence was never carried out. De Gaulle said of the sentence, "I consider the act of the Vichy men as void; I shall have an explanation with them after the victory". He and Churchill reached agreement on 7 August 1940, that Britain would fund the Free French, with the bill to be settled after the war (the financial agreement was finalised in March 1941). A separate letter guaranteed the territorial integrity of the French Empire. Conference, French Equatorial Africa, 1944 De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in the colonial French Equatorial Africa. In the autumn of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. Félix Éboué, governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October, where he announced the formation of an Empire Defense Council and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and the Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943. Algiers Working with the French Resistance and other supporters in France's colonial African possessions after Operation Torch in November 1942, de Gaulle moved his headquarters to Algiers in May 1943. He became first joint head (with the less resolutely independent General Henri Giraud, the candidate preferred by the US who wrongly suspected de Gaulle of being a British puppet) and then—after squeezing out Giraud by force of personality—sole chairman of the French Committee of National Liberation. In Algiers in 1943, Eisenhower gave de Gaulle the assurance in person that a French force would liberate Paris and arranged that the army division of French General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque would be transferred from North Africa to the UK to carry out that liberation. De Gaulle refused to share coded information with the British, who were then obliged secretly to break the codes to read French messages. Upon his arrival at RAF Northolt on 4 June 1944 he received an official welcome. On the evening of 26 August, the Wehrmacht launched a massive aerial and artillery barrage of Paris in revenge, leaving several thousand dead or injured. The situation in Paris remained tense, and a few days later, de Gaulle asked General Eisenhower to send American troops into Paris as a show of strength. On 29 August, the US 28th Infantry Division was rerouted from its journey to the front line and paraded down the Champs Elysees. The same day, Washington and London agreed to accept the position of the Free French. The following day General Eisenhower gave his de facto blessing with a visit to the General in Paris. == 1944–1946: Provisional Government of the French Republic ==

Roosevelt insisted that an Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMGOT) should be implemented in France, but this was opposed by both the Secretary and Under-Secretary of War, as well as by Eisenhower, who had been strongly opposed to the imposition of AMGOT in North Africa. Eisenhower, unlike Roosevelt, wanted to cooperate with de Gaulle, and he secured a last-minute promise from the President on the eve of D-Day that the Allied officers would not act as military governors and would instead cooperate with the local authorities as the Allied forces liberated French Territory. De Gaulle would later claim in his memoirs that he blocked AMGOT. With the prewar parties and most of their leaders discredited, there was little opposition to de Gaulle and his associates forming an interim administration. In order not to be seen as presuming on his position in such austere times, de Gaulle did not use one of the grand official residences such as Hotel de Matignon or the Élysée Palace, but resided briefly in his old office at the Ministry of War. When he was joined by his wife and daughters, they moved into a small state-owned villa on edge of Bois de Boulogne which had once been set aside for Hermann Göring. On 10 November 1944, Churchill flew to Paris to a reception by de Gaulle and the two together were greeted by thousands of cheering Parisians on the next day. Harold Nicolson stated that Anthony Eden told him that "not for one moment did Winston stop crying, and that he could have filled buckets by the time he received the Freedom of Paris." At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, despite Stalin's opposition, Churchill and Roosevelt insisted that France be allowed a post-war occupation zone in Germany, and also made sure that it was included among the five nations that invited others to the conference to establish the United Nations. This guaranteed France a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Victory in Europe to American Army and Navy officers William D. Leahy, George C. Marshall, Ernest J. King, Henry H. Arnold and Brehon B. Somervell In May 1945 the German armies surrendered to the Americans and British at Rheims, and a separate armistice was signed with France in Berlin. De Gaulle refused to allow any British participation in the victory parade in Paris. However, among the vehicles that took part was an ambulance from the Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit, staffed by French doctors and British nurses. One of the nurses was Mary Spears, who had set up the unit and had worked almost continuously since the Battle of France with Free French forces in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy. Mary's husband was General Edward Spears, the British liaison to the Free French who had personally spirited de Gaulle to safety in Britain in 1940. When de Gaulle saw the Union Flags and Tricolours side by side on the ambulance, and heard French soldiers cheering, "Voilà Spears! Vive Spears!", he ordered that the unit be closed down immediately and its British staff sent home. A number of French troops returned their medals in protest and Mary wrote, "it is a pitiful business when a great man suddenly becomes small." Another confrontation with the Americans broke out soon after the armistice when the French sent troops to occupy the French-speaking Italian border region of Val d'Aoste. The French commander threatened to fire on American troops if they tried to stop them, and an irate Truman ordered the immediate end to all arms shipments to France. Truman sent de Gaulle an angry letter saying that he found it unbelievable that the French could threaten to attack American troops after they had done so much to liberate France. Known as the Levant Crisis, British forces swept into Syria forcing the French to stand down, and with political pressure added by the United States and Soviet Union, the French ordered a ceasefire. This crisis further infuriated Truman, and France evacuated its troops later in the year but de Gaulle said to the British ambassador Duff Cooper, 'you have betrayed France and betrayed the West. That cannot be forgotten'. On that day, de Gaulle wished "Long live the United States of America". He visited New York City Hall and Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport), and presented LaGuardia with the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour award. On 13 November 1945, the new assembly unanimously elected Charles de Gaulle head of the government, but problems immediately arose when it came to selecting the cabinet, due to his unwillingness to allow the Communists any important ministries. The Communists, now the largest party and with their charismatic leader Maurice Thorez back at the helm, were not prepared to accept this for a second time, and a furious row ensued, during which de Gaulle sent a letter of resignation to the speaker of the Assembly and declared that he was unwilling to trust a party that he considered to be an agent of a foreign power (Russia) with authority over the police and armed forces. De Gaulle outlined a programme of further nationalisations and a new economic plan which were passed, but a further row came when the Communists demanded a 20-percent reduction in the military budget. Refusing to "rule by compromise", de Gaulle once more threatened to resign. There was a general feeling that he was trying to blackmail the assembly into complete subservience. However, that did not turn out to be the case. With the war finally over, the initial crisis had passed. Although there were still shortages, particularly of bread, France was now recovering, and de Gaulle suddenly did not seem so indispensable. The Communist publication Combat wrote, "There was no cataclysm, and the empty plate didn't crack". == 1946–1958: Out of power ==

De Gaulle suddenly dropped out of sight and returned to his home in Colombey to write his war memoirs. De Gaulle had told Pierre Bertaux in 1944 that he planned to retire because "France may still one day need an image that is pure ... If Joan of Arc had married, she would no longer have been Joan of Arc". The famous opening paragraph of Mémoires de guerre begins by declaring, "All my life, I have had a certain idea of France (une certaine idée de la France)", and ends by declaring that, given the divisive nature of French politics, France cannot truly live up to this ideal without a policy of "grandeur". During this period of formal retirement, however, de Gaulle maintained regular contact with past political lieutenants, including sympathizers involved in political developments in French Algeria, becoming "perhaps the best-informed man in France". In April 1947, de Gaulle made a renewed attempt to transform the political scene by creating a Rassemblement du Peuple Français (Rally of the French People, RPF), which he hoped would be able to move above the party squabbles of the parliamentary system. Despite the new party's taking 40 percent of the vote in local elections and 121 seats in 1951, lacking its own press and access to television, its support ebbed. In May 1953, he withdrew again from active politics, though the RPF lingered until September 1955. As with all colonial powers France began to lose its overseas possessions amid the surge of nationalism. French Indochina (now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), colonised by France during the mid-19th century, had been lost to the Japanese after the defeat of 1940. De Gaulle had intended to hold on to France's Indochina colony, ordering the parachuting of French agents and arms into Indochina in late 1944 and early 1945 with orders to attack the Japanese as American troops hit the beaches. Although de Gaulle had moved quickly to consolidate French control of the territory during his brief first tenure as president in the 1940s, the communist Vietminh under Ho Chi Minh began a determined campaign for independence from 1946. The French fought a bitter seven-year war (the First Indochina War) to hold on to Indochina. It was largely funded by the United States and grew increasingly unpopular, especially after the stunning defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. France pulled out that summer under Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France. The independence of Morocco and Tunisia was arranged by Mendès France and proclaimed in March 1956. Meanwhile, in Algeria some 350,000 French troops were fighting 150,000 combatants of the Algerian Liberation Movement (FLN). Within a few years, the Algerian war of independence reached a summit in terms of savagery and bloodshed and threatened to spill into metropolitan France itself. Between 1946 and 1958 the Fourth Republic had 24 separate ministries. Frustrated by the endless divisiveness, de Gaulle famously asked, "How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?" 1958: Collapse of the Fourth Republic '' cover (portrait by Bernard Buffet) The Fourth Republic was wracked by political instability, failures in Indochina, and inability to resolve the Algerian question. On 13 May 1958, Pied-Noir settlers seized the government buildings in Algiers, attacking what they saw as French government weakness in prosecuting the war against the FLN. A "Committee of Civil and Army Public Security" was created under the presidency of General Jacques Massu, a Gaullist sympathiser. General Raoul Salan, Commander-in-Chief in Algeria, announced on radio that he was assuming provisional power, and appealed for confidence. At a 19 May press conference, de Gaulle asserted that he was at the disposal of the country. As a journalist expressed the concerns of some who feared that he would violate civil liberties, de Gaulle retorted: "Have I ever done that? On the contrary, I have re-established them when they had disappeared. Who honestly believes that, at age 67, I would start a career as a dictator?" A constitutionalist by conviction, he maintained that he would accept power only from the lawfully constituted authorities. De Gaulle did not wish to repeat the difficulty the Free French movement experienced in establishing legitimacy as the rightful government. He told an aide that the rebel generals "will not find de Gaulle in their baggage". The crisis deepened as French paratroopers from Algeria seized Corsica and a landing near Paris was discussed (Operation Resurrection). Political leaders on many sides agreed to support the General's return to power, except François Mitterrand, Pierre Mendès France, Alain Savary, the Communist Party, and certain other leftists. On 29 May the French President, René Coty, told parliament that the nation was on the brink of civil war, so he was turning towards the most illustrious of Frenchmen, towards the man who, in the darkest years of our history, was our chief for the reconquest of freedom and who refused dictatorship in order to re-establish the Republic. I ask General de Gaulle to confer with the head of state and to examine with him what, in the framework of Republican legality, is necessary for the immediate formation of a government of national safety and what can be done, in a fairly short time, for a deep reform of our institutions. De Gaulle accepted Coty's proposal under the precondition that a new constitution would be introduced creating a powerful presidency in which a sole executive, the first of which was to be himself, ruled for seven-year periods. Another condition was that he be granted extraordinary powers for a period of six months. De Gaulle remained intent on replacing the weak constitution of the Fourth Republic. He is sometimes described as the author of the new constitution, as he commissioned it and was responsible for its overall framework. The actual drafter of the text was Michel Debré who wrote up de Gaulle's political ideas and guided the text through the enactment process. On 1 June 1958, de Gaulle became Prime Minister and was given emergency powers for six months by the National Assembly, fulfilling his desire for parliamentary legitimacy. De Gaulle's cabinet received strong support from right-wing parties, split support from left of center parties, and strong opposition from the Communist Party. In the vote on 1 June 1958, 329 votes were cast in favor and 224 against, out of 593 deputies. On 28 September 1958, a referendum took place and 82.6 percent of those who voted supported the new constitution and the creation of the Fifth Republic. The colonies (Algeria was officially a part of France, not a colony) were given the choice between immediate independence and the new constitution. All African colonies voted for the new constitution and the replacement of the French Union by the French Community, except Guinea, which became the first French African colony to gain independence and immediately lost all French assistance. == 1958–1969: Return to power ==

and de Gaulle at the Élysée Palace, 1960 In the November 1958 election, Charles de Gaulle and his supporters (initially the Union pour la nouvelle République - Union démocratique du travail, then the Union des démocrates pour la Cinquième République, later still the Union des Démocrates pour la République, UDR) won a comfortable majority. On 21 December, he was elected President of France; he was inaugurated in January 1959. As head of state, he became ex officio the Co-Prince of Andorra. De Gaulle oversaw tough economic measures to revitalise the country, including the issuing of a new franc. Less than a year after taking office, he was confronted with national tragedy, after the Malpasset Dam in Var collapsed in early December, killing over 400. Internationally, he rebuffed both the United States and the Soviet Union, pushing for an independent France with its own nuclear weapons and strongly encouraging a "Free Europe", believing that a confederation of all European nations would restore the past glories of the great European empires. In January 1963, West Germany and France signed a treaty of friendship, the Élysée Treaty. Algeria in 1959 Upon becoming president, de Gaulle was faced with the urgent task of ending the bloody and divisive war in Algeria. Although the military's near coup had contributed to his return to power, de Gaulle soon ordered all officers to quit the rebellious Committees of Public Safety. Such actions greatly angered the pieds-noirs and their military supporters. He faced uprisings in Algeria by the pied-noirs and the French armed forces. On assuming the prime minister role in June 1958, he immediately went to Algeria, and neutralised the army there. For the long term he devised a plan to modernize Algeria's traditional economy, deescalated the war, and offered Algeria self-determination in 1959. A pied-noir revolt in 1960 failed, and another attempted coup failed in April 1961. French voters approved his course in a 1961 referendum on Algerian self-determination. De Gaulle arranged a cease-fire in Algeria with the March 1962 Évian Accords, legitimated by another referendum a month later. It gave victory to the FLN, which declared independence. Prime Minister Michel Debré resigned over the final settlement and was replaced with Georges Pompidou. France recognised Algerian independence on 3 July 1962, and a blanket amnesty law was belatedly voted in 1968, covering all crimes committed by the French army during the war. In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 Pied-Noirs left the country. After 5 July, the exodus accelerated in the wake of the French deaths during the Oran massacre of 1962. Assassination attempts (Marne). The president salutes the crowd from his famous Citroën DS. De Gaulle was targeted for death by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), in retaliation for his Algerian initiatives. Several assassination attempts were made on him; one occurred on 22 August 1962, when he and his wife narrowly escaped from an organized machine gun ambush on their Citroën DS limousine. The attack was arranged by Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry at Petit-Clamart. Direct presidential elections In September 1962, de Gaulle sought a constitutional amendment to allow the president to be directly elected by the people and issued another referendum to this end. After a motion of censure voted by the parliament on 4 October 1962, de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and held new elections. The Gaullists won an increased majority. De Gaulle's proposal to change the election procedure for the French presidency was approved at the referendum on 28 October 1962. Thereafter the president was to be elected by direct universal suffrage for the first time since Louis Napoleon in 1848. In December 1965, de Gaulle returned as president for a second seven-year term. "Thirty glorious years" With the Algerian conflict behind him, de Gaulle was able to achieve his two main objectives: the reform and development of the French economy, and the promotion of an independent foreign policy and a strong presence on the international stage. This was named by foreign observers the "politics of grandeur". In the immediate post-war years France was in poor shape; wages remained at around half prewar levels, the winter of 1946–1947 did extensive damage to crops, leading to a reduction in the bread ration, hunger and disease remained rife and the black market continued to flourish. Germany was in an even worse position, but after 1948 things began to improve dramatically with the introduction of Marshall Aid—large scale American financial assistance given to help rebuild European economies and infrastructure. This laid the foundations of a meticulously planned program of investments in energy, transport and heavy industry, overseen by the government of Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. Aided by these projects, the French economy recorded growth rates unrivalled since the 19th century. In 1964, for the first time in nearly 100 years France's GDP overtook that of the United Kingdom for a time. This period is remembered in France as the peak of the Trente Glorieuses ("Thirty Glorious Years" of economic growth between 1945 and 1974). Fourth nuclear power and de Gaulle at the conclusion of their talks at Elysee Palace, 1961As early as April 1954, de Gaulle argued that France must have its own nuclear arsenal. Full-scale research began again in late 1954 when Prime Minister Pierre Mendès France authorized a plan to develop the atomic bomb. France's independent Force de Frappe (strike force) came into being soon after de Gaulle's election with his authorization for the first nuclear test. With the cancellation of Blue Streak, the US agreed to supply Britain with its Skybolt and later Polaris weapons systems, and in 1958, the two nations signed the Mutual Defence Agreement. Although at the time it was still a full member of NATO, France proceeded to develop its own independent nuclear technologies—this would enable it to become a partner in any reprisals and would give it a voice in matters of atomic control. '', the first French nuclear missile submarine After six years of effort, on 13 February 1960, France became the world's fourth nuclear power when a high-powered nuclear device was exploded in the Sahara. In August 1963, France decided against signing the Partial Test Ban Treaty because it would have prohibited it from testing nuclear weapons above ground. France continued to carry out tests at the Algerian site until 1966, under an agreement with the newly independent Algeria. France's testing program then moved to the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in the South Pacific. In November 1967, an article by the French Chief of the General Staff (but inspired by de Gaulle) in the Revue de la Défense Nationale caused international consternation. It was stated that the French nuclear force should be capable of firing "in all directions"—thus including even America as a potential target. This surprising statement was intended as a declaration of French national independence and was in retaliation to a warning issued long ago by Dean Rusk that US missiles would be aimed at France if it attempted to employ atomic weapons outside an agreed plan. However, criticism of de Gaulle was growing over his tendency to act alone with little regard for the views of others. Foreign policy in Washington, D.C., 1963 De Gaulle hosted a superpower summit on 17 May 1960 for arms limitation talks and détente efforts in the wake of the 1960 U-2 incident between United States President Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, and United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. De Gaulle then tried to revive the talks by inviting all the delegates to another conference at the Élysée Palace to discuss the situation, but the summit ultimately dissolved in the wake of the U-2 incident. In February 1966, France withdrew from the NATO Military Command Structure but remained within the organisation. De Gaulle wanted France to remain the master of the decisions affecting it; he also ordered all foreign military personnel to leave France within a year. in 1961De Gaulle established a good relationship with West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer—culminating in the Elysee Treaty in 1963—and in the first few years of the Common Market, France's industrial exports to the other five members tripled and its farm export almost quadrupled. The franc became a solid, stable currency for the first time in half a century, and the economy mostly boomed. De Gaulle vetoed the British application to join the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1963, and again in June 1967. In June 1965, after France and the other five members could not agree, de Gaulle withdrew France's representatives from the EC. Their absence left the organisation essentially unable to run its affairs until the Luxembourg compromise was reached in January 1966. De Gaulle succeeded in influencing the decision-making mechanism written into the Treaty of Rome by insisting on solidarity founded on mutual understanding. In January 1964, France was, after the UK, among the first of the major Western powers to open diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC). By recognizing Mao Zedong's government, de Gaulle signaled to both Washington and Moscow that France intended to deploy an independent foreign policy. With tension rising in the Middle East in 1967, de Gaulle declared an arms embargo against Israel on 2 June, just three days before the outbreak of the Six-Day War. This, however, did not affect spare parts for the French military hardware with which the Israeli armed forces were equipped. Under de Gaulle, following the independence of Algeria, France embarked on foreign policy more favorable to the Arab side. President de Gaulle's position in 1967 at the time of the Six-Day War played a part in France's new-found popularity in the Arab world. In his letter to David Ben-Gurion dated 9 January 1968, de Gaulle expressed conviction that Israel had ignored his warnings and overstepped the bounds of moderation by taking the territory of neighbouring countries by force, believing that it amounted to annexation, and considered withdrawing from these areas the best course of action. Under de Gaulle's leadership, France supported the breakaway Republic of Biafra against the Nigerian government during the Nigerian Civil War. Although French arms helped to keep Biafra in action for the final 15 months of the civil war, its involvement was seen as insufficient and counterproductive. The Biafran chief of staff stated that the French "did more harm than good by raising false hopes and by providing the British with an excuse to reinforce Nigeria." More generally, one of de Gaulle's priorities was maintaining and further expanding French economic and political power in its former colonies. This was not only done through official diplomacy and through the SDECE, but also through bridge figures such as de Gaulle's close confidant Jacques Foccart. The latter built up a network of informal relations with authoritarian leaders (most notably Omar Bongo, Félix Houphouët-Boigny and Léopold Sédar Senghor) throughout French-speaking Africa. , 1967 In July 1967, at the end of a speech given at the Expo 67 world's fair in Montreal, de Gaulle shouted "Vive le Québec libre! Vive le Canada français! Et vive la France!" (Long live free Quebec! Long live French Canada, and long live France!) to a large crowd from a balcony at Montreal's city hall; de Gaulle abruptly left Canada two days later. The speech was heavily criticized in both Canada and France, but was seen as a watershed moment by the Quebec sovereignty movement. May 1968 and resignation De Gaulle's government was criticized within France, particularly for its heavy-handed style. While the written press and elections were free, and private stations such as Europe 1 were able to broadcast in French from abroad, the state's ORTF had a monopoly on television and radio. This monopoly meant that the government was in a position to directly influence broadcast news. In many respects, Gaullist France was conservative, Catholic, and there were few women in high-level political posts (in May 1968, the government's ministers were 100% male). The mass demonstrations and strikes in France in May 1968 severely challenged De Gaulle's legitimacy. He and other government leaders feared that the country was on the brink of revolution or civil war. On 29 May, De Gaulle fled to Baden-Baden in Germany to meet with General Massu, head of the French military there, to discuss possible army intervention. De Gaulle returned to France after being assured of the military's support, in return for which De Gaulle agreed to amnesty for the 1961 coup plotters and OAS members. In a private meeting discussing the students' and workers' demands for direct participation in business and government he coined the phrase "", which can be politely translated as 'reform yes, masquerade/chaos no'. It was a vernacular scatological pun meaning "' ('shit-in-bed, no'). The term is now common parlance in French political commentary. But de Gaulle offered to accept some of the reforms the demonstrators sought. He again considered a referendum to support his moves, but on 30 May, Pompidou persuaded him to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. The June 1968 elections were a major success for the Gaullists. His party won 352 of 487 seats, but de Gaulle remained personally unpopular. De Gaulle resigned the presidency at noon, 28 April 1969, following the rejection of his proposed reform of the Senate and local governments in a nationwide referendum. Two months later Georges Pompidou was elected as his successor. == Later life ==

Retirement visiting President De Gaulle one month before De Gaulle's retirement De Gaulle retired once again to his nine-acre country estate, La Boisserie ("The Woodland Glade"), in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, 120 miles southeast of Paris. There the General, who often described old age as a "shipwreck", continued his memoirs, dictated to his secretary from notes. To visitors, de Gaulle said, "I will finish three books, if God grants me life." The Renewal, the first of three planned volumes to be called Memoirs of Hope, was quickly finished and immediately became the fastest seller in French publishing history. Death On the evening of 9 November 1970, De Gaulle, who had generally enjoyed good health in his lifetime, died suddenly from an abdominal aortic aneurysm while watching the news on television. His wife asked that she be allowed to inform her family before the news was released. De Gaulle's former prime minister and presidential successor Georges Pompidou, who was informed early the next day, announced the general's death on television, simply saying "General de Gaulle is dead. France is a widow." De Gaulle had insisted his funeral be held at Colombey, and that no presidents or ministers attend—only his Compagnons de la Libération. Since a large number of foreign dignitaries wanted to honor de Gaulle, Pompidou arranged a separate memorial service at the Notre-Dame cathedral, to be held at the same time as the actual funeral. The funeral on 12 November 1970 was the biggest such event in French history and a national mourning was declared. Thousands of guests attended, included Pompidou, U.S. president Richard Nixon, British prime minister Edward Heath and Prince Charles, UN secretary-general U Thant, Soviet statesman Nikolai Podgorny, Italian president Giuseppe Saragat, West German chancellor Willy Brandt and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. De Gaulle specified that his tombstone bear the simple inscription of his name and his years of birth and death. ==Personal life==

De Gaulle married Yvonne Vendroux on 7 April 1921 in Église Notre-Dame de Calais. They had three children: Philippe (1921–2024), Élisabeth (1924–2013), who married General Alain de Boissieu, and Anne (1928–1948). Anne had Down syndrome and died of pneumonia at the age of 20. De Gaulle always had a particular love for his daughter Anne; one Colombey resident recalled how he used to walk with her hand-in-hand around the property, talking quietly about the things she understood. The younger Charles de Gaulle's move to the anti-Gaullist National Front was widely condemned by other family members. "It was like hearing the Pope had converted to Islam", one said. Another grandson, Jean de Gaulle, was a member of the French parliament for the centre-right UMP until his retirement in 2007. == Legacy ==

Reputation De Gaulle made 31 regional tours during his presidency, visiting every French department; for many small towns, the visit was an important moment in history. He enjoyed entering the welcoming crowds; an aide noted how often people said, "he saw me" or "he touched me", and another recalled how a mother begged de Gaulle for the king's touch on her baby. They, supporters, and opponents surmised that de Gaulle was a monarch-like figure for the French. Historians have accorded Napoleon and de Gaulle the top-ranking status of French leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to a 2005 survey, carried out in the context of the tenth anniversary of the death of François Mitterrand, 35 percent of respondents said Mitterrand was the best French president ever, followed by Charles de Gaulle (30 percent) and Jacques Chirac (12 percent). Another poll by BVA four years later showed that 87% of French people regarded his presidency positively. Statues honouring de Gaulle have been erected in London, Warsaw, in Moscow, Bucharest and Quebec. The first Algerian president, Ahmed Ben Bella, said that de Gaulle was the "military leader who brought us the hardest blows" prior to Algerian independence, but "saw further" than other politicians, and had a "universal dimension that is too often lacking in current leaders." Likewise, Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of Senegal, said that few Western leaders could boast of having risked their lives to grant a colony independence. De Gaulle was admired by the US President Richard Nixon; after a meeting at the Palace of Versailles just before the general left office, Nixon declared that "He did not try to put on airs but an aura of majesty seemed to envelop him ... his performance—and I do not use that word disparagingly—was breathtaking." On arriving for his funeral, Nixon said of him, "greatness knows no national boundaries". Under the influence of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, the leader of CERES, the left-wing and souverainist faction of the Socialist Party, Mitterrand had, except on certain economic and social policies, rallied to much of Gaullism. Between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s there developed a left-right consensus, dubbed "Gaullo-Mitterrandism", behind the "French status" in NATO: i.e., outside the integrated military command. A number of commentators have been critical of his failure to prevent the massacres after Algerian independence, De Gaulle was an excellent manipulator of the media, as seen in his shrewd use of television to persuade around 80% of Metropolitan France to approve the new constitution for the Fifth Republic. He afterwards enjoyed massive approval ratings, and once said that "every Frenchman is, has been or will be Gaullist". De Gaulle's views did not necessarily always reflect mainstream French public opinion. His vetos of the UK's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1963 and 1967 contradicts the decisive majority the French people returned in the 1972 referendum on the matter. His early influence in setting the parameters of the EEC can still be seen, most notably with the controversial Common Agricultural Policy. Some writers take the view that Pompidou was a more progressive and influential leader than de Gaulle because, though also a Gaullist, he was less autocratic and more interested in social reforms. Although he followed the main tenets of de Gaulle's foreign policy, he was keen to work towards warmer relations with the United States. In 1968, shortly before leaving office, de Gaulle refused to devalue the Franc on grounds of national prestige, but upon taking over Pompidou reversed the decision almost immediately. During the financial crisis of 1968, France had to rely on American (and West German) financial aid to shore up the economy. Debray compared him with Napoleon ('the great political myth of the 19th century'), calling de Gaulle his 20th-century equivalent. Memorial commemorating the headquarters of General de Gaulle at 4 Carlton Gardens in London during World War II A number of monuments have been built to commemorate de Gaulle. France's largest airport, located in Roissy, outside Paris, is named Charles de Gaulle Airport. France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is also named after him. == Honours and awards ==

French • Grand-Croix of the – 1945 (Officer – 1934; Knight – 1919) • Grand Master of the • Grand-Croix of the Ordre national du Mérite – 1963 • Croix de guerre 1915 • Chief Commander of the US Legion of Merit (24 August 1945) • Grand Cordon of the Order of the Dragon of Annam (last awarded 1945) • Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (16 June 1959) • Royal Victorian Chain (1960) • Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri of Thailand (11 October 1960) • Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim (Sweden, 8 May 1963) • Collar of the Order of Merit of Chile (October 1964) • Knight of the Order of the Elephant (Denmark, 5 April 1965) • Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (1962) • Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1962) • Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Cambodia • Grand Cross of the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol of Laos • Grand Cross Extraordinary of the Order of Boyaca of Colombia • Grand Cordon of the Sharifian Order of Military Merit of Morocco • Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín of Argentina • Grand Collar of the National Order of Merit of Ecuador • Grand Cross of the Order of Military Merit of Brazil • Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit of Paraguay • Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru • Grand Collar and Medal of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil • Member 1st Class of the Order of Pahlavi of Iran • Grand Cross of the Military Order of Ayacucho of Peru • Collar of the Order of the Aztec Eagle of Mexico • Member 1st Class of the Order of the Two Rivers of Iraq • Collar of the Order of the Liberator of Venezuela • Grand Collar of the National Order of the Condor of the Andes of Bolivia • Member 1st Class of the Order of Umayyad of Syria • Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Cedar of Lebanon • Member of the Order of the Benevolent Ruler of Nepal • Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold of Belgium • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles of Monaco (5 October 1944) • Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany • Collar of the Order of Al-Hussein bin Ali (Jordan) • Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ of the Vatican • Knight with the Collar of the Order of Pius IX of the Vatican • Grand Commander of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece • Papal Lateran Cross of the Vatican • Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta of Poland • Commander of the Bavarian Order of Merit Medals • Medal of the Mexican Academy of Military Studies • Medal of Rancagua of Chile • Medal of the Legionnaires of Quebec • Medal of the City of Valparaiso • Medal of Honour of the Congress of Peru • Plaque and Medal of the City of Lima, Peru • Medal of the City of New Orleans • Order of the American Legion • Medal of the College Joseph Celestine Mutis of Spain == Works ==

French editions • ''La Discorde Chez l'Ennemi'' (1924) • Histoire des Troupes du Levant (1931) Written by Major de Gaulle and Major Yvon, with Staff Colonel de Mierry collaborating in the preparation of the final text. • ''Le Fil de l'Épée'' (1932, republished 2010, 2015) • ''Vers l'Armée de Métier'' (1934) • La France et son Armée (1938) • Trois Études (1945) (Rôle Historique des Places Fortes; Mobilisation Economique à l'Étranger; Comment Faire une Armée de Métier) followed by the Memorandum of 26 January 1940. • • Volume I – ''L'Appel 1940–1942'' (1954) • Volume II – ''L'Unité, 1942–1944'' (1956) • Volume III – Le Salut, 1944–1946 (1959) • ''Mémoires d'Espoir'' • Volume I – Le Renouveau 1958–1962 (1970) • Discours et Messages • Volume I – Pendant la Guerre 1940–1946 (1970) • Volume II – ''Dans l'attente 1946–1958'' (1970) • Volume III – Avec le Renouveau 1958–1962 (1970) • Volume IV – ''Pour l'Effort 1962–1965'' (1970) • Volume V – Vers le Terme 1966–1969 English translations • ''The Enemy's House Divided (La Discorde chez l'ennemi''). Tr. by Robert Eden. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2002. • The Edge of the Sword (''Le Fil de l'Épée''). Tr. by Gerard Hopkins. Faber, London, 1960 Criterion Books, New York, 1960 • The Army of the Future (''Vers l'Armée de Métier''). Hutchinson, London-Melbourne, 1940. Lippincott, New York, 1940 • France and Her Army (La France et son Armée). Tr. by F. L. Dash. Hutchinson London, 1945. Ryerson Press, Toronto, 1945 • War Memoirs: Call to Honour, 1940–1942 (''L'Appel''). Tr. by Jonathan Griffin. Collins, London, 1955 (two volumes). Viking Press, New York, 1955. • War Memoirs: Unity, 1942–1944 (''L'Unité''). Tr. by Richard Howard (narrative) and Joyce Murchie and Hamish Erskine (documents). Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1959 (two volumes). Simon & Schuster, New York, 1959 (two volumes). • War Memoirs: Salvation, 1944–1946 (Le Salut). Tr. by Richard Howard (narrative) and Joyce Murchie and Hamish Erskine (documents). Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1960 (two volumes). Simon & Schuster, New York, 1960 (two volumes). • Memoirs of Hope: Renewal, 1958–1962. Endeavour, 1962– (Le Renouveau) (''L'Effort''). Tr. by Terence Kilmartin. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971. == See also ==