The General: Charles De Gaulle and the France He Saved

736 Pages·2012·2.26 MB·English

by  Jonathan Fenby

THE GENERAL
Also by Jonathan Fenby
THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF MODERN CHINA:
THE FALL AND RISE OF A GREAT POWER
DRAGON THRONE: THE IMPERIAL
DYNASTIES OF CHINA
THE SEVENTY WONDERS OF CHINA (ED.)
ALLIANCE: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW
ROOSEVELT, STALIN AND CHURCHILL
WON ONE WAR AND BEGAN ANOTHER
THE SINKING OF THE LANCASTRIA: BRITAIN’S WORST
NAVAL DISASTER AND CHURCHILL’S COVER-UP
GENERALISSIMO: CHIANG KAI-SHEK AND THE
CHINA HE LOST
DEALING WITH THE DRAGON:
A YEAR IN THE NEW HONG KONG
ON THE BRINK: THE TROUBLE WITH FRANCE
THE GENERAL
CHARLES DE GAULLE AND THE
FRANCE HE SAVED
JONATHAN FENBY
Copyright © 2012 by Jonathan Fenby
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-61608-600-8
Printed in the United States of America
To Lola and Kate, with love
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART ONE
REACHING FOR THE HEIGHTS
1 Edge of the Abyss
2 ‘I, General de Gaulle’
PART TWO
THE MAKING OF A REBEL
3 ‘Un petit Lillois à Paris’
4 War
5 ‘Generation of catastrophes’
6 The Constant Rebel
7 Debacle
PART THREE
ONE MAN’S COMBAT
8 ‘France has not lost the war’
9 Family Time
10 Allies at Odds
11 At the Summit
12 Resistance and Collaboration
13 Blitzkrieg
14 Going Home
15 Liberation
PART FOUR
FROM VICTORY TO DEFEAT
16 Witches’ Brew
17 Foreign Affairs
18 Pétain and Laval
19 ‘Nest of intrigues’
20 ‘That will teach them’
21 ‘Guide for the nation’
22 Triumphs and Tragedies
PART FIVE
THE ROAD BACK
23 Biding His Time
24 ‘I will see’
25 Saving the Ship
26 First in France
PART SIX
REPUBLICAN MONARCH
27 The Sovereign, His Court and His People
28 Algeria
29 Raising the Game
30 The Crucible
31 Full House
32 Facing France
33 Tilting at Windmills
PART SEVEN
SHADOWS AND NIGHT
34 ‘Great things always end badly’
35 The Ides of May
36 Counter-punch
37 Final Act
Source Notes
Bibliography
Glossary of Significant People
Glossary of Abbreviations
Index
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My initial debt is to Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, my agent, who pressed me for
several years to write a biography of de Gaulle; after five books on China it seemed
high time to turn back to France and its most important figure of the last century. Mike
Jones and Simon & Schuster showed a heart-warming interest in the idea, and I am
grateful to my editor, Katherine Stanton, and her colleagues, together with copy editor
Richard Collins and proofreader Sue Phillpott, for their care and speed in enabling the
book to appear in time for the seventieth anniversary of de Gaulle’s historic 18 June
appeal to resistance in 1940.
Many others assisted along the way, prominent among them André Villeneuve, who
read the draft manuscript and provided research on the Second World War, Philippe
Oulmont and his helpful colleagues at the Institut de Gaulle in Paris, Nathalie de Gaulle
and Bernard Edinger who drew on his seemingly bottomless pool of knowledge to
answer queries at the drop of an e-mail. I recalled conversations about de Gaulle with
the late and invaluable André Passeron. Ginette Vincendeau was a guide to matters both
cinematic and linguistic, as was Peter Graham. I am indebted, too, to Anne Boston,
Coralie Poidatz and Richard Lambert for anecdotes and help. In Colombey, the Natali
family provided memories as well as excellent food. Pierre Lethier pointed me to the
interesting US archives on which I have drawn in chapters on the Fifth Republic. The
sisters of the convent that now occupies de Gaulle’s wartime home in Hampstead were
welcoming.
I am indebted to the staffs of the memorials in Colombey and Paris, the
Bibliothèque Nationale, the Archives Nationales and the Quai d’Orsay in Paris and, in
London, at the National Archives, the British Library and the invaluable London
Library with its unexpected treasure trove of French books about the period. As always,
while researching and writing, I benefited from the hospitality of relatives and friends,
notably Annie Besnier, Jenny and Peter Thomas and the Count of Mourjou, as well as
the sympathetic encouragement of that nonpareil belote partner, Simon Caulkin.
I owe a great debt, naturally, to the works of those who have written at length about
the General in the past, notably Jean Lacouture’s monumental biography, Éric Roussel’s
two-volume work and Alain Peyrefitte’s three-volume recounting of conversations with
the President – accounts of de Gaulle tend to be no shorter than their subject. The
memoirs of many who worked with the General have been an invaluable source of
material as have been the works of Admiral Philippe de Gaulle, Michel Tauriac and
Jean-Raymond Tournoux. I am grateful to Editions Plon for allowing me to quote from
their editions of the General’s notes, letters and speeches.
As always, writing took me away from family, and I am grateful to Sara and
Alexander for putting up with this – to which they would reply, no doubt, that they have
grown used to it. My biggest debt is to my wife who played an even greater role in this
book than in previous ones. Not only did she act as first reader, researcher, translator,
compiler of the Glossary of Significant People, expert on the finer points of translating
the often untranslatable General, and explainer of the Gallic viewpoint, but her
participation made this enterprise a real partnership for which I cannot adequately
express my thanks. All I can say is that the best way to write a book is with such a
companion, even if we still argue over how to render some of the subject’s words into
English.