Eight decades and a year ago, in June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle told Frenchmen and the world: “France has lost a battle. She has not lost the war.”
It was the beginning of a journey back to dignity for France in the wake of the Nazi onslaught on and occupation of the country. It was too that seminal moment in history that marked Charles de Gaulle’s emergence on the global scene, at a time when the likes of Marshal Petain and Pierre Laval proved unable to take the bold step of reassuring the country that all was not lost, that France had nothing to fear.
All these decades on, De Gaulle is remembered for the firm and purposeful leadership he demonstrated not only as head of the Free French during the Second World War, but also as the man who wrought remarkable, indeed enduring changes in the political geography of France. During the war, he made sure that he was treated at par with Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Winston Churchill, that they acknowledged him as his country’s authentic voice. And despite their discomfort with his attitude, they did precisely that.
As the war ravaged Europe, De Gaulle remained the voice of France. At the end of the war, it was to him that the French turned for leadership. In those early post-war days, De Gaulle made it clear, through words and action, that he was beholden to no one, that political compromise was not part of his scheme to mould France in line with his specifications. When the country’s politicians, unable to steer themselves clear of old ideas, would not agree, de Gaulle made his way out of power. He would return, he said, when France called him again.
France called him in 1958. With the country being in a mess, the national assembly empowered Charles de Gaulle to undertake the reforms necessary to reshape its politics. As a man who had his pulse on history, who had made history, De Gaulle was fully cognizant of the task which lay before him. He comprehended the sheer gravity of the Algerian struggle for independence and moved to ensure, despite the opposition of senior army officers, that France withdrew from Algeria and that Ahmed Ben Bella took charge of a country ready to be part of the global community. De Gaulle’s leadership had been established and would only be strengthened further in the years ahead.
De Gaulle’s greatness was solidified when he restructured the nature of political France through what would come to be known as the Fifth Republic. The system, underscored by a division of authority between president and parliament -- with the president holding charge of foreign affairs and defense and the rest being in the hands of the legislative body -- has endured, has served France well.
Having experienced the chaos of the Third and Fourth Republics, De Gaulle was acutely conscious of the fact that unless politics was stabilized through a system that would last, there was little point in politics being the staple of everyday conversation in France. The Fifth Republic, all these decades after De Gaulle’s passing, remains symbolic of the modern France that is his legacy.
General De Gaulle was not willing to have his country be subservient to the two superpowers of the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union, for he believed that French history and its sense of independence demanded that it have a presence of its own. France was part of the Western alliance but, as De Gaulle showed through his act of withdrawing the country from the integrated military command of NATO in 1966, it would be free to pursue its own strategy in diplomacy.
His government recognized the People’s Republic of China in January 1964, which left the Johnson administration in Washington stunned. His conviction that Britain did not qualify for membership of the European Common Market -- and he vetoed London’s application for membership -- stemmed from a belief that Britain was really not part of the continent and hence could have no say in its affairs.
Charles de Gaulle was not above controversy, as e furore over his open support for the independence of Quebec in 1967 was to highlight so prominently. He did not retract his statement or apologize, for he sincerely believed that Quebecois deserved to be free. In 1966, he spoke at a rally of a 100,000 people in Phnom Penh to demand that the US withdraw its forces from Vietnam and bring the war to an end. He remembered the agony of the French in Vietnam -- recall Dien Bien Phu 1954 -- and was therefore not willing to have America commit a similar mistake in the country.
Charles de Gaulle had a sure sense of his destiny inasmuch as he had a sense of France’s destiny. Proud of French contributions to literature and music and philosophy and history, he made it clear that the idea of French grandeur defined the spirit of his nation.
He once exclaimed: “Brigitte Bardot is France,” even as he showed his exasperation at governing a country that produced more than 200 different kinds of cheese. His quips are part of his persona. In his early days as president, he told newsmen: “Gentlemen, I am neither on the left nor on the right. I am above.” He brooked no opposition to his grand schemes, which perhaps explains his comment: “I respect people who disagree with me, but I cannot tolerate them.”
In the era of political mediocrity we inhabit today, Charles de Gaulle is a necessary reminder of leadership as it should be. A voracious reader, he impressed Richard Nixon with his view of Europe 1939-45: “Mr President, in the Second World War, all the nations of Europe lost. Two were defeated.”
Charles de Gaulle was France. And he was more than France.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is a journalist and biographer.
