Waubonsee Community College

Charles DeGaulle, a profile, by Greg Barker and Sandy Gall

eng

videorecording

Charles DeGaulle

electronic resource

767805881

by Greg Barker and Sandy Gall

26

World history in video

a profile

In June 1940, a junior general in the French army escaped to London determined to save France after its surrender to the Germans. Charles De Gaulle became the leader of the Free French, and the embodiment of their hope for the future. Arrogant and abrasive, through sheer force of will he asserted France s position with the Allied powers. When the Allies were ready to recapture Paris, Eisenhower held back his troops to allow De Gaulle to liberate Paris. After the war, De Gaulle was the outstanding figure in France and the natural choice to lead the new government. But the infighting among the political parties was distasteful to him and he retired from public life in 1947. In 1958, when France was torn apart by the Algerian independence movement, De Gaulle emerged from seclusion to form the Fifth Republic. Though initially he hoped to retain Algeria as part of France, in the end he realized it must gain its independence. By 1968 a new post war generation had come of age and rebelled against his authoritarianism. He resigned in 1969 and died the following year. Archival films together with commentary by journalists and colleagues bring the career of this remarkable leader alive

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live action