When President Nicolas Sarkozy officially announces France’s return to the Nato military command at the summit of the Atlantic alliance in early April, he will not only be revoking Charles de Gaulle’s decision of 43 years ago but will in a sense also be seeking to consign the general to the history books.
De Gaulle, the towering figure of 20th-century France, was the saviour of French honour in 1940, the man who stabilised his country in 1958 and extracted it from the Algerian war. He wrote the constitution of the Fifth Republic for himself and all his successors. But although his preoccupation with authority, national revival and technological modernisation shaped postwar France, Gaullism as a political credo has gradually lost ground and meaning.
Read Full Article »