(Wikimedia Commons public domain)
Charles de Gaulle bestrides the twentieth-century history of France like a colossus. He was the leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War, the head of the provisional government of liberated France from 1944 to 1946, the founder of France’s “Fifth Republic,” and the nation’s president from 1959 to 1969. The country’s main airport is named after him, as is the most important plaza of Paris.
He was, to put it mildly, a personality. Here are a few quotations from him:
“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.”
“How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?”
“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”
“The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”
“When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.”
“When I want to know what France thinks, I ask myself.”
Here’s a humanizing detail that I find touching: Charles de Gaulle and his wife had three children. The youngest of them, Anne (1928-1948), had Down’s syndrome and died of pneumonia at the age of 20. General de Gaulle always had a particular love for Anne; one Colombey resident later recalled how the general used to walk with Anne hand-in-hand around his property there, caressing her and talking quietly with her about things that she could understand. When he died, he was buried next to her. Greatness isn’t exempt from ordinary mortal trials and everyday sorrows.
Posted from Le Chesnay, France
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In