Charles de Gaulle

De Gaulle was born in Lille, the second of five children of Henri de Gaulle, a
professor of philosophy and literature at a Jesuit college, who eventually founded his
own school. He was raised in a family of devout Roman Catholics who were nationalist
and traditionalist, but also quite progressive.

De Gaulle was educated in Paris at the College Stanislas and also briefly in
Belgium. Since childhood, he had displayed a keen interest in reading and studying
history. Choosing a military career, de Gaulle spent four years studying and training at
the elite Saint-Cyr. While there, and because of his height, high-forehead and nose, he
acquired the nicknames of "the great asparagus" and "Cyrano". Graduating in 1912, he
joined the 33rd infantry regiment of the French Army, based at Arras. While serving
during World War I, he was wounded and captured at Douaumont in the Battle of
Verdun in March 1916. While being held as a prisoner of war by the German Army, de
Gaulle wrote his first book, co-written by Matthieu Butler, "L'Ennemi et le vrai ennemi"
(The Enemy and the True Enemy), analyzing the issues and divisions within the German
Empire and its forces.

Charles de Gaulle married Yvonne Vendrou on 7 April 1921. They had 3

children: Philippe (born 1921), Élisabeth (1924), who married general Alain de Boissieu,
and Anne (1928 - 1948). Anne had Down's syndrome and died at 20.

Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French
Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and
served as its first president from 1959 to 1969.

At the outbreak of World War II, de Gaulle was only a colonel, having
antagonised the leaders of the military through the 1920s and 1930s with his bold
views. Initially commanding a tank brigade in the French 5th Army, de Gaulle
implemented many of his theories and tactics for armoured warfare. On 6 June, Prime
Minister Paul Reynaud appointed him Undersecretary of State for National Defense
and War and put him in charge of coordination with the United Kingdom. While
serving as a liaison with the British government, de Gaulle telephoned Paul Reynaud,
the French prime minister, from London on 16 June informing him of the offer by
Britain of a Declaration of Union. This would have in effect merged France and the
United Kingdom into a single country, with a single government and a single army for
the duration of the war. This was a desperate last-minute effort to strengthen the
resolve of those members of the French government who were in favor of fighting on.
Returning the same day to Bordeaux, the temporary wartime capital, de Gaulle learned
that Field Marshall Pétain had become prime minister and was planning to seek an
armistice with Nazi Germany. De Gaulle and allied officers rebelled against the new
French government; on the morning of 17 June, de Gaulle and other senior French
officers fled the country with 100,000 gold francs in secret funds provided to him by
the ex-prime minister Paul Reynaud. On 4 July 1940, a court-martial in Toulouse
sentenced de Gaulle in absentia to four years in prison. At a second court-martial on 2
August 1940 de Gaulle was condemned to death for treason against the Vichy regime.

With British support, de Gaulle settled himself in Berkhamstead (36 miles

northwest of London) and began organising the Free French forces. Gradually, the
Allies gave increasing support and recognition to de Gaulle's efforts. In dealings with
his British allies and the United States, de Gaulle insisted at all times on retaining full
freedom of action on behalf of France, and he was constantly on the verge of being cut
off by the Allies.

Working with the French resistance and supporters in France's colonial African
possessions after the Anglo-U.S. invasion of North Africa 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 U.S.)
and then sole chairman of the French Committee of National Liberation.

At the liberation of France following Operation Overlord, he quickly established

the authority of the Free French Forces in France, avoiding an Allied Military
Government for Occupied Territories. He flew into France from the French colony of
Algeria a few days before the liberation of Paris, and drove near the front of the
liberating forces into the city alongside Allied officials. De Gaulle made a famous
speech emphasizing the role of France's people in her liberation. After his return to
Paris, he moved back into his office at the War Ministry, thus proclaiming continuity of
the Third Republic and denying the legitimacy of the Vichy regime.

He served as President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic starting

in September, 1944. As such he sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps to re-
establish French sovereignty in French Indochina in 1945. He made Admiral
d'Argenlieu High commissioner of French Indochina and General Leclerc commander-
in-chief in French Indochina and commander of the expeditionary corps. Under de
Gaulle's leadership, a joint force of his Free French together with French colonial
troops from North Africa enabled France to field an entire army on the western front
after Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. This force, the French First
Army, helped to liberate almost one third of the country and meant that France
actively rejoined the Allies in the struggle against Germany. The French First Army
captured a large section of German territory after the allied invasion thus enabling
France to be an active participant in the signing of the German surrender. Also,
through the intervention of the British and Americans at Yalta and despite the
resistance of the Russians, a French zone of occupation was created in Germany. De
Gaulle finally resigned on 20 January 1946, complaining of conflict between the
political parties, and disapproving of the draft constitution for the Fourth Republic,
which he believed placed too much power in the hands of a parliament with its shifting
party alliances. He was succeeded by Félix Gouin (SFIO), then Georges Bidault (MRP)
and finally Léon Blum (SFIO).

Charles de Gaulle resigned the presidency on 28 April 1969, following the

defeat of his referendum to transform the Senate (upper house of the French
parliament, wielding less power than the National Assembly) into an advisory body
while giving extended powers to regional councils. Some said this referendum was a
self-conscious political suicide committed by de Gaulle after the traumatising events of
May 1968. As in 1946, de Gaulle refused to stay in power without widespread popular
support.

De Gaulle retired once again to Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, where he died suddenly in

1970, two weeks before his 80th birthday, in the middle of writing his memoirs. In
generally very robust health until then, despite an operation on his prostate some
years before, it was reported that as he had finished watching the evening news on
television and was sitting in his armchair he suddenly said “I feel a pain here”, pointing
to his neck, just seconds before he fell unconscious due to an aneurysmal rupture.
Within minutes, he was dead.