General de Gaulle and the Restoration of the Republic

Abstract

Abstract THOSE historians for whom General de Gaulle has been the center of their preoccupations have concentrated their studies on certain periods of his life. The creation of La France Libre in London and the broadcast of 18 June 1940; his entry into a Paris that had been liberated by the Resistance and by General Leclerc’s 2nd Armoured Division; his triumphal progress down the Champs Elysees on 26 August 1944; the return to power in 1958 and the creation of the Fifth Republic; the ending of the war in Algeria; the influence of de Gaulle in Europe and in the world. It is as if the historians of de Gaulle and Gaullism have themselves become Gaullist. The part played by de Gaulle in the Liberation of France has also been told many times and it is seen as another Gaullist triumph. This is undoubtedly true in so far as de Gaulle succeeded in overcoming certain considerable difficulties. He had to face the hostility of the British and American leaders and the danger of an Allied military government being installed in France; it was widely believed that there was the possibility of a Communist revolution which could well have led to civil war. But once de Gaulle had established himself in France and had been accepted as the head of government this hostility declined, and at times disappeared.