The Creation and Ideology of Modern France

"Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp on action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own...Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself."

-- Charles De Gaulle

Charles De Gaulle represented all the glory of France and also everything that Americans associate negatively with France. Born with pride in his native France and endowed with a sense of destiny, De Gaulle considered himself a savior of France. During World War II, his allies considered De Gaulle arrogant and intransigent. In particular, Churchill viewed the French man with disdain, figuring that De Gaulle owed his existence to Britain. Churchill was right. While we view France as a nation that resisted the Nazis during World War II, the truth was more complicated and quite frankly bleaker. Much of the French political apparatus cooperated with the Germans and the French Vichy government was a de facto ally of Nazi Germany. De Gaulle was one of the few leaders who refused to surrender.

De Gaulle was born in a France that was a world and cultural power. This was a nation that survived for four years the German onslaught in World War I at a high price. De Gaulle witnessed the carnage first hand in the trenches on the western front. Before World War II, France was still considered a great military power with colonial reach beyond Europe. It was during the 1930s that the French, along with their British allies, followed a policy of appeasement with Adolf Hitler. The French, still scarred by the devastation of World War I, wanted to prevent another bloodbath on their soil. This appeasement would lead to World War II and the French Army collapse. The France that defended its territory for four years in World War I at the cost of millions, was swept away in a six-week campaign and its political leadership merely surrendered to the Germans. The leadership accepted its fate and then essentially joined the other side.

De Gaulle did not surrender and that is why today, he is a symbol of French stubbornness in the face of Nazis conquest. For the French, World War II was more than a disaster - it was a period in which the old France lost her soul. De Gaulle restored French dignity and pride in the post-World War II era and allowed France to recapture much of its impact within the Western alliance. For De Gaulle, his goal was to return France back to its former greatness of his youth and of history.

Article Author: Tom Donelson

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