Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) was a French army officer turned political leader whose career shaped twentieth-century France and the architecture of postwar Europe. After the fall of France in June 1940, he refused the armistice signed by Marshal Pétain and broadcast his Appeal of 18 June from London on BBC radio, calling on French citizens to continue resistance. From exile he organized the Free French Forces and the French National Committee, and by 1944 led the Provisional Government of the French Republic, entering liberated Paris in August of that year.

De Gaulle resigned in January 1946 over disagreements about the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which he considered too parliamentary and unstable. He returned to power in 1958 during the Algerian crisis, when the Fourth Republic collapsed. He oversaw the drafting of a new constitution establishing the Fifth Republic, with a strong executive presidency, and was elected its first president. In 1962 he secured Algerian independence through the Évian Accords despite opposition from settlers and parts of the army (including the OAS, which attempted to assassinate him).

His foreign policy, often called Gaullism, emphasized national independence and grandeur. Key moves included:

• Developing an independent French nuclear deterrent (force de frappe), with the first test in 1960.
• Withdrawing France from NATO's integrated military command in 1966 while remaining in the alliance politically.
• Vetoing British entry into the European Economic Community in 1963 and again in 1967.
• Signing the Élysée Treaty with West Germany in 1963, anchoring Franco-German reconciliation.
• Recognizing the People's Republic of China in 1964.

Weakened by the May 1968 protests and a lost referendum on regional reform, he resigned on 28 April 1969 and died the following year at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. His institutional legacy — a semi-presidential system and an independent foreign policy tradition — continues to define French politics.