THE VISION OF CHARLES DE GAULLE

As a writer, Charles de Gaulle has the gift of clarity, as a politician he knows the uses of ambiguity, and as a statesman he has shown remarkable consistency. From nearly 30 years of writings and remarks come these affirmations of his aspirations and ambitions:

On NATO

Alliances do not settle everything. (1963)

The Glory of France

Our country, with her tinted sky, her varied contours, her fertile soil, our fields full of fine corn and vines and livestock, our industry, our gifts of initiative, adaptation and self-respect, make us, above all others, a race created for brilliant deeds.

The sword is the axis of the world, and greatness cannot be shared. (1934) The emotional side of me tends to imagine France, like the princess in the stories or the Madonna in the frescoes, as dedicated to an exalted and exceptional destiny. But the positive side of my mind also assures me that France is not really herself unless in the front rank; that only vast enterprises are capable of counterbalancing the divisive ferments which are inherent in her people. In short, to my mind, France cannot be France--without greatness. (1955) Who in good faith can dispute the fact that France must help to build Western Europe into an organized union of states so that gradually there may be established the most powerful, prosperous and influential political, economic and military complex in the world? (1962)

From the Atlantic to the Urals

The equilibrium of Europe, the guarantee of peace along the Rhine, the independence of the Vistula, Danube and Balkan states, the creation of some form of association with the peoples all over the world to whom we have opened the doors of Western civilization, an organization of nations which will be some thing more than an arena for disputes between America and Russia--these surely are our great interests in tomorrow's world. (1944) Perhaps it might be possible to renew Franco-Russian solidarity in some fashion, which, even if repeatedly betrayed and repudiated, remains no less a part of the natural order of things both with regard to the German danger and the Anglo-Saxon efforts to assert their hegemony. (1944) I am convinced that if France took the initiative to summon Europe to organize itself, in particular with German help, the whole European atmosphere from the Atlantic to the Urals would be changed. (1950)

The Americans

In the mortal dangers we French have survived since the beginning of the century, the U.S. has not given us the impression that it regards its own destiny as linked with that of France, that it wishes France to be great and strong, that it is doing all it can to help her to remain or become so once again. (1945) The Alliance has been built on the basis of integration, in which the defense of each of the countries of conti nental Europe, apart from England, has no national character, in which in fact all is commanded by the Americans, and it is the Americans who determine the use of your atomic weapons. (1960) The American interest is not always the French interest. This will be more and more true in the future, which will give Europe a greater and greater weight, and which will therefore contribute to diminishing the relative weight of the U.S.(1963)

Following Britain, other states would want to enter the Common Market. In the end there would appear a colossal Atlantic community under American dependence and leadership, which would soon completely swallow up the European community. (1963)

Britain & Europe

England and France will together create peace, as twice in 30 years they have together confronted war. (1944) England has turned over to the Americans what meager atomic forces she had. She could have turned them over to Europe. Thus she has made her choice.

I am distressed to see England align herself with the U.S., for she risks acting like their traveling salesman.

The English will no doubt enter the Common Market, perhaps in 50 years, and I will without doubt no longer be here. (1963)

Third Force

I have sought to assure France primacy in Western Europe by preventing the rise of a new Reich that might again threaten its safety; to cooperate with East and West and, if need be, contract the necessary alliances on one side or the other without ever accepting any kind of dependency; to persuade the states along the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees to form a political, economic and strategic bloc; to establish this organization as one of the three world powers and, if necessary, as the arbiter between the Soviet and Anglo-American camps.

Since 1940, my every word and deed has been dedicated to establishing these possibilities. (1955) Only France knows that peace or war will be decided in Europe. Yes. it is Europe, it is all Europe that will decide the destiny of the world.

If the peoples of Europe, on whichever side of the Curtain they find themselves, want to establish concord among themselves, then peace will be assured. But if Europe remains divided in two opposed factions, war will sooner or later destroy the human race. (1959) Who can say what tomorrow will bring? Who can say that, in the future, if the political background should change completely, the two powers [the U.S. and Russia] that have the nuclear monopoly will not agree to divide the world? Who can say that if the occasion arises, each of the two, while deciding not to launch its missiles at the main enemy, so that it might itself be spared, will not crush the others?

It is possible to imagine that, on some awful day, Western Europe would be wiped out from Moscow and Central Europe from Washington. And who can even say that the two rivals, after I know not what political upheaval, will not unite? (1959)

On Leadership

Glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her. (1934) It was by acting as the inflexible champion of the nation and the state that it was possible for me to gather the consent, even the enthusiasm, of the French, and to win from foreigners respect and consideration. Those who were offended by this intransigence were unwilling to see that for me the slightest wavering would have brought collapse. Limited and alone though I was, I had to climb to the heights and never then to come down. (1940, describing his wartime leadership) Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him if he can make of them the means to achieve great ends. Aloofness, character, and the personification of greatness, these qualities it is that surround with prestige those who are prepared to carry a burden which is too heavy for lesser mortals. (1932)

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