De Gaulle, Charles (1890–1970)

French statesman and general, leader of the French government in exile during World War II, and president of France from 1958 to 1969. De Gaulle was a political and military maverick known for his commitment to a strong French state to balance the political and military power of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890, in Lille, France, to a family of strong intellectual leanings. His grandfather was a historian, his grandmother was a writer, and his father was a professor in private Catholic schools and later founded his own school. Political debates were frequent in the de Gaulle home, and Charles's father initiated him into politics at a young age.

De Gaulle decided early on a military career and began training at age 19. While serving as an army captain during World War I, he was wounded and captured by the Germans. He tried seven times to escape but was recaptured each time. After the war, he was assigned to the French Military Mission to Poland during the Poland–Russia War (1919–20). De Gaulle remained in the military but advanced in rank slowly because of disagreements with his superiors about army tactics and strategy. De Gaulle was a proponent of mechanized warfare using tanks and aircraft, whereas the French general staff were still obsessed with fortresses and other forms of static defensive warfare.

During the German invasion of France in May 1940, de Gaulle was the only French commander to score any battlefield successes. He was rewarded with a promotion to temporary brigadier general and named undersecretary of state for war. When French forces surrendered in June 1940, members of the French government formed the so-called Vichy regime, which collaborated with Germany. De Gaulle, who was in England conferring with British military leaders at the time of the surrender, refused to cooperate with the Vichy leaders. On June 18, he announced the formation of a Free French government in exile. De Gaulle was recognized as a legitimate leader of that government by the British and, as the war progressed, by the French citizenry, as well.

After the liberation of Paris from the Germans in July 1944, de Gaulle was the first in the parade down the Champs-Élysées, and he proclaimed himself head of a provisional French government. After the war, he was elected president of the provisional government in November 1945. The legislature that elected him, however, was deeply divided along party lines and it would not give him the degree of executive authority he wanted. He resigned his post in January 1946. During the following dozen years, the French government would struggle with political unrest both at home and abroad. In France, the Communist Party made significant inroads, winning representation in both national and local governmental bodies. Overseas, colonial wars led to French withdrawal from Indochina (present-day Vietnam) and a bloody uprising in Algeria.

On May 15, 1958, de Gaulle issued a public statement saying that he was willing to take power. On June 1, he assumed emergency powers from French president René Coty, and on December 21, de Gaulle was formally elected as the new French president. De Gaulle immediately took control over drafting a new constitution that gave broad powers to the executive branch. This situation did not rest well with legislators (and caused problems later), but de Gaulle proved that a democratic republic with a strong executive could function effectively in France.

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