THE MAN WHO DEFIED AMERICA : 30 years showdown between General de Gaulle and the USA - Documentary

This de Gaulle is an apprentice dictator, he is not a democrat, he supports the great democrats of Vichy Roosevelt decided to liquidate de Gaulle All of a sudden France exists, and he cannot understand For the United States and France are an obstacle to going in circles. The United States does not want nuclear autonomy from France. He will leave NATO but to ally himself with the Warsaw Pact. I am leaving the military organization of the Atlantic Alliance because it is in the hands of the Americans. My grandfather knew that as it had done regularly during its exercise of power, the CIA could add fuel to the fire, however it could, while it could. It was obviously an attempt perhaps destabilization of de Gaulle In barely a month, between mid-May and mid-June 1940, France collapsed. Poorly commanded and poorly prepared, the army suffered one of the worst defeats in its history. To everyone's surprise, Hitler destroyed in a few weeks one of the greatest colonial powers of the 21st century. Outside of Britain, there remains no resistance to the ambitions of the Nazi regime in Europe. This France, which was considered after the First World War as the first military power, collapsed in a few months , so that’s a shock. As a result, it does not have the moral spring that the British have, so France appears to be a finished country. At the forefront of the defeat is Harrisson Freeman Matthews, the United States ambassador to France. He is one of the witnesses to the entry of Nazi troops into Paris and the collapse of the Third Republic. Matthews helps show Roosevelt the state of decay of the French government and his influence is important in Roosevelt's idea that France has really fallen very low. On the French side, only one man stands against Hitler. He is 49 years old. Little known, Charles de Gaulle, a two-star general and until June 16 under-secretary of state for war in the Reynaud government has just joined London to continue the fight. We hope that one day a superior mechanical force will allow us to have victory... He launched a call to fight on June 18, 1940 on the English airwaves of the BBC. The honor of the French consists in continuing the war alongside their allies. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, officially recognized him as leader of all the free French on June 28. In France, the Vichy regime was led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. It had just received full powers from the National Assembly on July 10, 1940. Installed in the unoccupied part of the country, the Vichy government was officially recognized by the United States of President Franklin Roosevelt. He had made his own little program, with France disappearing it was he who was going to be the guarantor, who was going to be the protector, who was going to reshape France to suit him, and with his relations with Vichy, he was going to serve as a guide to marshal, protector. As a testimony to this mutual trust and in recognition of this understanding, President Roosevelt sent a Cadillac to the head of the Vichy regime. A gift that became the official car of Philippe Pétain. The head of the White House also dispatched an ambassador to Vichy. Admiral Richard Leahy, who negotiated trade agreements between the United States and Vichy, was also a fervent admirer of Pétain. Until the United States entered the war in December 1941, there would be many American supplies arriving in the free zone. And there is an ambassador called Admiral Leahy in Vichy who is a personal friend of Darlan, admiral like him, so they have known each other for a very long time, who has great admiration for Pétain, who is housed sumptuously in Vichy , which is supplied in bottles of Whiskey by Darlan, and which works a lot on Franco-American friendship Admiral Leahy's whiskey supplier is François Darlan, head of the merchant navy and Vichy soldier. He became head of Pétain's government in December 1940. Commissioner for Jewish Questions, transfer of military bases in the empire to the Germans, Darlan was the man of unbridled collaboration with the Nazi regime. Designated successor to Pétain, he also worked hand in hand with Roosevelt’s isolationist America. For Roosevelt the policy with Vichy is obviously self-interested, at the same time it allows him to ensure that the fleet does not fall into the hands of the Germans, the colonies on which he has his sights set in addition, French colonies, so until to the landing in North Africa Vichy's policy is the cornerstone of its policy. American financial ties with Europe are very important and old. With the start of the Second World War, all these interests need to be protected and even developed. Without distinction, the United States trades with Great Britain, the Nazi regime and the Vichy regime. What motivates them is not at all morality contrary to what they claim, it is not at all great feelings, it is not at all the old Franco-American friendship. All of this, if I were trivial, I would say that they don’t care. What motivated them to intervene was money, that's all, that's all. The United States wanted in France what they had of course wanted before and ultimately Vichy was particularly likely to grant because that Vichy was a sort of dream government. I would say that as the years went by, Vichy became more tempting. It was a particularly flexible government, American companies in France, they did quite substantial, quite considerable business during the occupation . Faced with such a combination of intersecting political and economic interests, Charles de Gaulle, the unknown general, was no match for Roosevelt. The President doesn't like it. There is an initial hatred, the general does not please him, and he already formed this idea almost immediately in the summer of 1940, and he will never give up, this de Gaulle is an apprentice dictator , he's not a democrat, he supports the great democrats of Vichy and de Gaulle, he says it himself, he's the one preventing him from going in circles, who will compromise his entire policy with Vichy. My grandfather told me that Roosevelt was already fundamentally a politician, and he didn't like me because it's true that I did n't give in, that I had a big mouth and that's it. it was like that. In Washington, pro-Pétain and de Gaulle's adversaries flock to the White House. Everyone agrees with a rejection of the leader of Free France. Roosevelt is someone who is very influenced by people who agree with him. In this case there are among the French who took refuge in Washington, you have people who are very well introduced to the White House and who are, moreover, for very varied reasons, quite fiercely anti de Gaulle. a man who is very important in this regard is Alexis Leger the great poet Saint-John Perse who later won the Nobel Prize , who was for a long time secretary general of the Quai d'Orsay, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris and who considers himself a great diplomat and who, while de Gaulle approached him with consideration to ask for his support, refused it haughtily and who from that moment truly belonged to Roosevelt and his people, the Minister of Foreign Affairs American against de Gaulle. But there is more concern for de Gaulle in Washington. There is indeed the Count of Chambrun, the Count of Chambrun is the son-in-law of Laval so obviously he cannot be a Gaullist and on the other hand he is a cousin of Roosevelt. So he is very well received at the White House, a friend of the Roosevelt household calls him Bunny. And Pierre Laval calls his son-in-law little rabbit. This shows if there is a kind of inbreeding. And he tells Roosevelt exactly what he wants to hear, obviously it's very practical. Another man has his entries. Banker and fine psychologist, Jean Monnet is a man highly appreciated by Anglo-Saxon political and business circles . Monnet wears several hats, notably working for the United Kingdom as responsible for war supplies. Jean Monnet does not share this, it is not absolute detestation but he does not like de Gaulle either, he also sees him as an obstacle to his own projects and therefore he too, as the Americans adore Jean Monnet, they have known him since the first war etc, so that’s an added influence. Roosevelt allowed himself to be convinced and convinced himself in a very very very profound way, he, the most powerful man in the world, decided to liquidate de Gaulle A year later, when Great Britain had won the battle for the sky, de Gaulle continues to rally support and organize the forces of Free France in London and the Empire. On the European continent, in the summer of 1941, Nazi Germany launched a large-scale offensive in the East against the USSR. The United States entered the war in December 1941 after the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor. Over the months, Roosevelt's America rearmed massively. At the beginning of the summer of 1942, American forces prepared a first response against Hitler. The Americans in the summer of 1942 already wanted to land in France. They only had two divisions to put there, they had not fired a shot against the Germans since 1918, their officers and men were still extremely green and therefore for the English who were still in combat since 1939 it was It was total amateurism Churchill persuaded Roosevelt to land the Allied expeditionary force in North Africa. The plan is to defeat Rommel's Afrikakorps and then attack Mussolini's Italy, Hitler's ally on the southern flank of Europe. But North Africa, they didn't know what it was, it was Consul Murphy who said, they thought they were going to land in the jungle with huts made of dried mud, no idea what it looked like North Africa. They documented themselves quite quickly, they caught up very quickly. Robert Murphy is Roosevelt's personal representative in Algiers. Since September 1940, he has developed American economic interests in North Africa. In French Algeria, Murphy established friendly relations with the influential French Vichyist business circles . It was there that he met the industrialist Jacques Lemaigre Dubreuil, the big boss of Lesieur oils. Edible oil and engine oil. Lemaigre Dubreuil is the typical example of these large industrialists who took advantage of the collaboration to enrich themselves since he sold oil to the Germans and who prepared for the future with the Americans. And all this resulted in Lemaigre Dubreuil being a linchpins of the American solution to the landing Roosevelt is keen to take care of all the details of this upcoming landing in North Africa in the heart of French territory under Vichy control. The American President still has de Gaulle in his sights. And, in the greatest secrecy for weeks, the Americans have been looking for a Frenchman to replace the London rebel at short notice. For a while the Americans tried to pit someone against de Gaulle, and it was Roosevelt who obviously held the hand. But de Gaulle had his own intelligence sources, and very quickly he learned, practically from August he knew. He knew that we were also going to involve General Giraud. Henri Giraud is a 5-star general. De Gaulle knows that this officer chosen by Washington to become the provisional leader of France is called upon to become the handyman for the Americans in North Africa. Giraud is anything but a military hero. He was captured, quite miserably in May 40, surrounded by the Germans and was a prisoner until his escape in 1942, before crossing to North Africa via Portugal and Spain. Giraud was the dream man moderately Vichyist and also anti de Gaulle, he could eclipse de Gaulle On November 8, 1942, the Anglo- American landing took place simultaneously in Morocco, Casablanca and in Algeria in Oran and Algiers. Vichy did not intend to let the Anglo-Saxons land in its territories without a fight. If Algiers fell easily in a day thanks to local resistance, the fighting was fierce in Casablanca and Oran. In Algiers, the Americans make an unexpected encounter, that of François Darlan, one of the strong men of Vichy. It turns out that Darlan is in North Africa , he is in North Africa because his son is very ill and he came to see him so that's the hazards of war, there's nothing we can do about it, it's like that. He is there and it is to him that everyone obeys. And so we will have to come to an agreement with Darlan. The Americans want to stop the fighting as quickly as possible. For his first military engagement, with unseasoned soldiers, General Eisenhower wanted to preserve as many lives as possible. They get along with Darlan, and Giraud in there and well Giraud he arrives later, he makes a call which no one obeys, because in North Africa Giraud doesn't count, but the Americans couldn't do that. know. So they are year after year they are obliged to come to an agreement with the man on site who can provide them with a cease fire, and it is Darlan, to whom they say you don't have much choice, he says yes but I have to ask the marshal for instructions and he is told no, no, the marshal, we do n't know, it's now or we'll put you in prison, we even let him understand that it could be more serious than prison. So well, Darlan is not a hero, so he obviously ends up doing what he is asked. A Vichy government of French Africa was formed on November 14, 1942 by Darlan under the name “High Commission of France in Africa”. He takes power “in the name of Marshal Pétain”. Giraud joins forces with Darlan in exchange for his appointment as commander of the Army of Africa. He received the approval of the Americans. The American government chooses Darlan, that is to say Darlan is worse than Pétain, so it is totally unacceptable, but it is the choice of the Americans. The one who obviously does not accept it is de Gaulle, de Gaulle knows him very well, good minister of the interior of Vichy, minister of foreign affairs, it is he who went to meet Hitler in Berchtesgaden etc, c he's the man of the Germans Darlan, so that the Americans and the English could get along with a guy like that for him it's, it's total amorality This is where de Gaulle drops this formidable sentence, which is a sentence obviously dictated by anger but which sums it all up but ultimately it is not Hitler that Roosevelt is waging war on, it is me. The High Commission maintains all of Pétain's laws and exceptional measures, including the internment of resistance fighters deported by Vichy and anti-Jewish laws. Darlan agrees to absolutely astonishing things, he really gives the keys to North Africa to the Americans, he gives them military command, civil command, administration command. And so his policy is going to be a Vichy policy in South Africa. North, it's a metastasis of Vichy in North Africa , covered by the American man, Giraud, so it's a bit of an aberrant situation. The Darlan interlude is short-lived. The admiral was assassinated on December 24, 1942 by a young French resistance fighter. Henri Giraud, who became civil and military commander-in-chief, maintains the same political line. He had the leaders of the resistance arrested and deported to the south. Thus the empire at war remains divided between two powers: that of Algiers, supported by Roosevelt and the French Committee in London, determined to restore republican legality. On January 14, 1943, President Roosevelt arrived in North Africa. Tribute to his fighters, he must also probe the man on whom he bet everything. He met Giraud for the first time on January 17. And at the end of the interview, he said to Churchill, although we are leaning on a rotten plank, he is lousy as an administrator, he will be lousy as a leader. General de Gaulle, who was neither consulted nor informed of the landing, arrived in North Africa on January 22. He must prevent power from slipping away from the fighters of Free France who are the only legitimate ones in his eyes to re-establish the republic. No question of understanding with the men of Vichy. It is in this state of mind that he meets the American President. Roosevelt is not alone. The first meeting between Roosevelt and de Gaulle went badly because during his meeting with Roosevelt the curtains moved and behind the curtains there were OSS agents Armed with Thomson 45 caliber submachine guns , and the head of the guards said the president told us that he was an apprentice dictator, we don't want to take any risks, we're waiting for him to try to strangle the president and we'll turn him into a sieve. The general had noticed and he would say later, he took me for Lincoln's assassin. The meeting takes place in a heavy atmosphere. Roosevelt makes it clear to him that for him he is in no way the representative of French legitimacy and even less of French legality, for him the one he recognizes is legal and he recognized Giraud. Roosevelt concedes nothing to de Gaulle. Giraud and him will have to get along. But, de Gaulle had a strong ally, the political circumstances. The American President who is seeking a third term has an electoral deadline the following year. Roosevelt's problem was that public opinion in December and January demanded that de Gaulle be put at the forefront, and the press above all, the press which manipulated public opinion. And so Roosevelt said to himself, we must do something publicity to show that I accept that de Gaulle is put back in the saddle, even if it is in a subordinate position. Consequently, the conference that followed in Anfa, Morocco until January 24, 1943 was nothing more than a big show for the benefit of President Roosevelt. It sealed for the press and public opinion the association of Generals Giraud and de Gaulle. They are forced to shake hands, a magnificent archive indeed because we see de Gaulle unfolding very slowly and extending a limp hand to General Giraud. A handshake that we even have to do again. The frame should be perfect for the photos. The president smiled, it was done under his aegis and so there it is, he is the great protector of Giraud and de Gaulle, American opinion just has to keep quiet, and he will be able to do it peacefully. , quietly prepare for his re-election. And at the same time there is... one way or another we will have to get rid of de Gaulle. For this, Roosevelt dispatched his special advisor, the Frenchman Jean Monnet. He must do everything to repaint Giraud as a democrat and make him triumph over de Gaulle. Subsequently, in the spring of 1943, Roosevelt asked Churchill, visiting Washington, to stop his support for de Gaulle. Churchill sent an urgent telegram to this effect to members of his government. But, at this precise moment, different events worked in de Gaulle's favor. Leclerc who comes back from Africa and who won and who covered himself with glory arrives in Tunisia with his army, there is a demonstration welcoming the winner of the free French troops, and there he goes up to the tribune and says for France has only one leader, de Gaulle, long live de Gaulle Rallying the French forces of Leclerc and in London, Churchill's telegram is very poorly received by the members of his cabinet. They are responding to their Prime Minister, what you are proposing there is totally impossible for a dozen reasons that the Americans have not even begun to think about, British public opinion is for de Gaulle, parliament is for de Gaulle, the press is for de Gaulle, the governments in exile are for de Gaulle, the king is for de Gaulle, and what you are proposing is absolutely not possible, it will cause us the worst problems. Finally, a combination of circumstances, at the same time, the French Internal Resistance supports de Gaulle with all its weight. It is Jean Moulin who will bring together all the resistance movements, all the representatives of the political parties of the right-wing resistance to the communist party and who will obtain the recognition of de Gaulle as the sole leader and as the sole representative of the free French. Gradually, de Gaulle undermined Giraud’s authority . The American President then tried everything by inviting him to tour the United States. And Giraud gives a big conference and there he finds nothing better to say than: ah well, Germany is still the country of Luther and Goethe so far so good, and national socialism there is no still not all bad. And the next day on the front page of all the newspapers, Roosevelt himself opens the New York Times and what he sees, Giraud sings the praises of National Socialism. It’s truly a total collapse. Back Giraud realizes that his place is taken. De Gaulle increased the number of rallies, and in the process asserted his authority. Giraud, marginalized, completely disappeared from the political and military landscape at the beginning of 1944. At the same time, as the upcoming Landings approached in France, de Gaulle secretly reached an understanding with General Eisenhower. The two men make a deal. Eisenhower told him I will only recognize you once I land in France, whatever my instructions in exchange you guarantee me peace behind my back so that I can go to Germany as quickly as possible. De Gaulle is a politician, and a historian, the crux of everything is Paris, he who controls Paris controls France. And so he says to him I agree but you have to help me get to  Paris. France must be liberated by itself, or at least give the appearance of it. But Roosevelt has not said his last word. As for pro-Nazi countries, he launched Operation AMGOT. It aims in particular from the landing to establish an American administration to provisionally govern France. It was significant of the contempt they had towards France, because they used it and imagined it for Italy which was a defeated country, we could at the extreme limit understand it, but Well, with an allied country, it's still a little different. The leader of Free France is very well informed by his intelligence service. To counter the maneuver of the head of the White House, he prepared a counter-administration resulting from the resistance. We are going to appoint commissioners of the Republic and therefore my father will be responsible for finding the names who, as the territory is liberated, will immediately be put in place to, things must be clear, prevent the Americans from ensure domination over the administration. Amgot provides for American prefects but also a new currency modeled on the format of the dollar on which the words French Republic are not even written. For de Gaulle it is the supreme insult because the attributes of sovereignty since the 20th century have been the ability to mint money. If someone issues money in your place, you are subordinate to him, you are nothing. De Gaulle finally landed on French soil on June 14, 1944. His first trips to Normandy left no room for doubt. The general is indeed the man the French are waiting for. Faced with this evidence, Roosevelt, who still did not recognize him as the official representative of France, agreed to invite him to Washington at the beginning of July. The idea that we could criticize him for not having bet on the man who risks being the strong man at the time of the liberation of France, that could cost him a lot of votes so he calculated the voice that it was going to cost him and he said to himself: wow, this could be annoying, it will give wings to my competitor, something has to be done. And the something obviously is to receive de Gaulle. De Gaulle was not fooled by President Roosevelt's political maneuvers. Furthermore, the content of his statements on American control of the post-war world does not reassure him. But, for the moment, his priorities lie elsewhere. De Gaulle still leaves with a very great distrust, he says to himself, the Americans need it, but they are going to cause us the worst problems in Indochina, in Africa, elsewhere and so obviously he sees clearly everything that that can be done after the liberation but well his immediate problem is to be able to charm the Americans enough so that Roosevelt feels obliged to equip at least a minimum the armies he is going to raise. De Gaulle returned to France, Eisenhower honored his part of the bargain. At that time Eisenhower let the second DB return to Paris and allowed de Gaulle to impose himself politically but he did so almost by violating Roosevelt's orders. On August 25, the city was jubilant, Paris broken, Paris martyred but Paris liberated, liberated by itself, liberated by its people... But behind the scenes a political fight was taking place. Communist resistance infiltrates all the provisional administrations of the capital. And to regain control of the levers of power, the general asks one last favor from the leader of the allied armies. De Gaulle said to Eisenhower, I need you to intimidate the communists, you need to lend me two divisions for, and the exact quote: “For a show of force in Paris.” Eisenhower told him, general, what I am proposing to you, we have two divisions which must go to the front, I will send them through Paris. That's why on August 29 you see two divisions, two divisions were gigantic, that's 25,000 men marching down the Champs-Élysées, we still have the films, it's something extraordinary. So whether it really impressed the communists on the spot we will never know, but what is certain is that it impressed Stalin. An impressed Stalin and Roosevelt who finds himself the only Western head of state who has still not recognized de Gaulle. The moment he knows that de Gaulle is preparing a trip to the Soviet Union, he says to himself it's not possible, we must, we must, we can no longer be the last to recognize him, the whole world has recognized him. Response from de Gaulle: the French government is satisfied that we are willing to call it by its name. He couldn't have done otherwise, that 's it, that's it, we don't have to thank. De Gaulle harbors no illusions towards the head of the White House. Moreover, while the French troops have just liberated Strasbourg, the leader of Free France is asked to come and help counter the latest German offensive in the Ardennes. De Gaulle had other plans in mind. He knows that the next episode is the conquest of Germany, but the allies have not planned a French occupation zone, and de Gaulle wants to conquer it himself and therefore he knows that if he gives up Strasbourg will no longer have any point of support to cross into Germany and conquer the occupation zone without which France will not have any influence in the international concert But, while de Gaulle secures France's place in the world of post-war, the Roosevelt administration advanced its pawns in North Africa. Its objective: to put an end to the French empire, take control of oil and prepare for the anti-communist fight by supporting independence movements. In Algeria we see very clearly that the Americans are not going to keep their arms crossed and that they have every intention of playing a discreet but effective role. The Americans' objective was still to make North Africa a sort of military base I mean and economic against the Soviet Union and therefore effectively and therefore they helped in terms of armaments And, on May 8, 1945, the very day of the Allied victory over Nazism, violent riots broke out in Sétif, Algeria. The demonstrators are Algerians of Muslim faith. They want independence. The repression is extremely brutal. Officially, the French authorities estimate that the tragedy left 103 Europeans dead and several thousand Muslims dead. After investigation, the French secret services made a discovery. The French services, the DST in this case, discovered that shortly before these events, the Algerian separatists had been heated to death by American agents, including Roosevelt's own cousin, Kermit Roosevelt, who was an agent of the OSS who would become very later important to the CIA. The riots are harshly repressed. If de Gaulle has always been hostile to the colonial link, he wants to leave in peace. He did not have time to implement his decolonization policy; he left power in January 1946. A great period of submission then began for 6 years . The Fourth Republic, politically and economically subservient to the United States, fell into colonial wars causing a serious political crisis in the spring of 1958. When Coty turned to de Gaulle it was because there was no longer any alternative solution, that the Americans no longer want to lend money to the 4th, which they have supported at arm's length for 12 years, and he only sees this solution, both because it can create a psychological shock for the economy and also because he thinks that he is the only one to have authority over the army which is beginning to rebel. But what de Gaulle ignores is that the Americans are maneuvering to get him elected . From the embassy, ​​Wells Stabbler, a diplomat employed by the CIA, has been buying French policies for years. For this election, he set up a stratagem with Guy Mollet, the boss of the SFIO, the socialist party, to have de Gaulle installed as President of the Council on June 2, 1958. Eisenhower greatly feared a communist coup and asked the CIA to help in the return of de Gaulle's power, and how the CIA is going to do it, it is quite extraordinary and it shows the porosity between American interests and the French political class, by asking part of the SFIO group, socialist, to vote for the investiture of de Gaulle As soon as he arrived at Matignon, de Gaulle made things clear with the Americans. To Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who visited him, he explained his views on a sovereign policy for France, which notably houses NATO headquarters and numerous American military bases. When de Gaulle came to power in 58, it went hand in hand with a defense of French interests and therefore opposition to all those who sought to challenge it, so the Americans were naturally going to be spontaneously from 58 adversaries, new ones. competitors of de Gaulle and his supporters in power He had all gotten used to the fact that France did not exist. Suddenly France exists, they cannot understand. At the same time, the war intensifies in Algeria, mobilizing more and more men from the regular army and conscripts. It is in this context that Prime Minister Michel Debré is launching a secret investigation among his services into the means available to the FLN, the Algerian National Liberation Front. The Americans brought all the support that we imagine to the FLN, the money And we see that the American financing of the FLN comes elsewhere with a fairly simple path from Swiss banks and in particular from the union of Swiss banks , UBS Everyone was playing against France, there was the American consul in Algeria who was almost showing off, there was the president of the local chamber of commerce. One man plays a considerable role in Algeria. This is Irving Brown. Coming from an American trade union background, he is a CIA agent. Since the end of World War II, he has been the representative for all of Europe for the AFL-CIO, the American federation of labor. The AFL-CIO, the federation of American unions closely linked to the CIA, helped financially and even armed the Algerian maquis and in particular the FLN. This is a certain fact of which the DST at the time was perfectly aware. Faced with the increasing power of the war and the stalemate of violence, de Gaulle submitted the destiny of Algeria to a referendum on January 8, 1961. 75 % of voters say yes to independence. An armed opposition was organized in February 1961. In the process, a handful of generals attempted a putsch in Algiers in April 1961. And now we were going to do everything to limit his power, to destabilize him. So since the essential affair is the affair of Algeria, it is the FLN then it will be the OAS. The OAS, that is to say the organization of the secret army, was the incarnation, the armed arm of, the refusal of a large part of the Europeans of Algeria to accept the very idea of independence. It was at this time that the United States made a change of policy in Algeria. De Gaulle does not take their interests into account. They then decide to bet on the OAS, an anti- communist and pro-French Algeria terrorist organization. And we saw the arrival, just as we had seen the arrival of support for dollars in the coffers of the FLN, support, dollars through front companies in the coffers of the people of the OAS. The OAS treasure was not nothing, there were a lot of secret funds which passed through Spain in particular. Funding, training camps in Spain, various weapons, significant American support for the OAS provokes a French reaction. The head of the CIA stationed in Paris, his name was “Lumer”, was released for this. This is because the French government, the Élysée in particular, considered that it had become far too involved in certain, you see, operations in the entourage of the people of the OAS. And so they requested his repatriation to the United States French, French, I have already explained to you the... Finally, the Evian peace accords were signed on March 18, 1962. They put an end to seven years and five months of war in Algeria. The OAS, to its core, attempted to assassinate de Gaulle and his family on several occasions to stop the peace process. In a few months, the organization was completely dismantled and civil peace was restored both in France and Algeria. De Gaulle wanted to make peace in Algeria, firstly because he thought that it was inevitable but also it was to get rid of this burden to really have a free hand for an international activity which would restore France to its rank. . To the great fear of the United States, the first tool for reestablishing the independence of France and its assertion on the international scene is the manufacturing of a military nuclear arsenal. First the A bomb then the H bomb. For the United States, France is an obstacle to going in circles, it is the former dominant power in Europe and it is not a question of putting it back in the saddle but de Gaulle's goal is precisely to put France back in the saddle and to give it the means of autonomous defense. The United States does not want nuclear autonomy from either Great Britain or France. Great Britain finally submits, but France no, there is no question of it France must be armed, too, and in such a way that no state can think of killing it without risking death itself . And de Gaulle will explain that first we are going to make the French bomb, hurray for France, the A bomb, this seems essential to him, in the name of the idea that never in history, and 40 had verified it, never is a country ready to sacrifice itself to defend another country. In the Algerian desert, on February 13, 1960, everyone held their breath: “Blue Gerboise” was the most powerful first nuclear test ever carried out. It makes France the 4th nuclear power in the world. At midnight, one in the morning, my father was prime minister, my father wakes us up. He puts his children half asleep and says, my children, France has become independent, France has joined the club of great powers, it has succeeded in its first atomic explosion. While President Kennedy respects the Gaullian desire to restore France to its rank, his vice-president and successor has a radically opposite world view. Johnson arrives and there everything that could have been released at the end of the Kennedy mandate was reblocked and reblocked I would say a hundredfold, very precise directives were given to large American companies to no longer sell technology and in particular computer science to the French. The new head of the White House wants to prevent France from acquiring the technology to manufacture the H bomb. Lyndon B. Johnson is under the influence of a CIA spymaster. A specialist in the secret war against the Soviet Union, James Jesus Angleton is the all-powerful head of American counter-espionage. Angleton is a man called the gray ghost who never shows himself because he is gray the color of a wall. We only know of him as having one passion, which is flowers and not yet gardening because he would take the risk of cutting himself, it's the flowers on his balcony, that's it and the orchids, but that doesn't go any further, that's it. This is the only passion we know of him, and Angleton has an obsession with making de Gaulle appear not only as someone dangerous and irresponsible in international matters, but as an authentic Soviet agent. Angleton returns agents of all nationalities. One of them, Philippe Thyraux de Vosjoly, is the head of the French External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service , the SDECE in the United States. It is the French liaison agent Thyraux de Vosjoly, an agent of the SDECE based in Washington whom Angleton fooled and made roughly one of his agents, he is a fairly rare defector but he is a French defector towards the American camp He organized the burglary by Angleton's special services who were arriving and Angleton himself entered the French embassy. And they had things on the French cipher on the passwords, on the codes, on the top secret cables that were sent. Meanwhile, Angleton has got his hands on another Soviet defector spy. Anatoly Golitsyn Major in the KGB is responsible for strategic planning. He makes revelations and he says, there are people in the French services who are Soviet agents, good, and he says there is also one at the Élysée. The person who was said to be Jacques Foccart who was therefore de Gaulle's Mr. Africa but also the man who took care of all the special services, parallel police forces, etc... Sowing doubt in the highest levels of the French administration. Everything is done to try to destabilize the French secret services and make de Gaulle falter. But, the KGB major will only unmask one French spy. Georges Easter who works as a press officer at NATO. He does not have access to sensitive information. Not only is he a bad ally of Gaulle but he is secretly preparing a complete change of alliance, he is going to leave NATO but to ally himself with the Warsaw Pact. The CIA, encouraged by the Johnson presidency, continues to fuel the rumor of de Gaulle's proximity to the Soviet Union. For de Gaulle, it is simply a question of sovereignty. There was one subject on which General de Gaulle did not want to compromise, which was that he had American nuclear weapons on his territory which would have been detonated by the Americans, that was out of the question. He keeps a lot of contact with NATO, we are not, we are not definitively breaking away from NATO in all directions. But we say are you going to settle elsewhere, because NATO was based in France, there were still bases in France. Post-war there are American bases, they have swarmed all over French territory De Gaulle has been very firm, I am leaving the military organization of the Atlantic Alliance, because it is in the hands of the Americans, I am refusing European army because it puts the French army under American command, I am not going to accept the military organization of the Atlantic alliance which consists of deciding in place of France. There is no question of de Gaulle moving away from the Atlantic alliance. But France's exit from NATO, de Gaulle's speeches in Phnom Pehn and Quebec against American imperialism are not digested by Washington. They are the ideal pretext that the Americans are waiting for to add fuel to the fire. Counterintelligence chief Angleton mounts a new poisoning operation. He exploits Vosjoly, the French defector. The ex spy must make world revelations about the Soviet spies at the Élysée. Vosjoly writes his memoirs which appear first in the United States which are immediately translated in Canada and so the book explains that de Gaulle is a Soviet agent, that there is a mole in the Élysée, and the good pages of the book are presented by Life Magazine, 9 million copies with an extraordinary cover which is a photo of Vosjoly taken from behind. The American State Department is also co-financing a fiction film. The scenario is that of the French spy. The director is the world reference for spy thrillers. Alfred Hitchcock, who was going through a bad financial situation, accepted the project. In the casting of Topaz in English, L’étau in French, Philippe Noiret and Michel Piccoli. It is the story of a president of the republic who is a mole and who sacrifices his best agents, sacrifices Franco-American friendship in favor of the Soviet Union. The international operation is launched at the very beginning of the crisis of May 68. The calendar is not trivial. It comes at a perhaps opportune time for the Americans who want, well, to cut his teeth a little, it was obviously an attempt perhaps to destabilize de Gaulle, well who moreover is going to be destabilized there concretely by May 68, and the social crisis, academic, etc. And the political crisis that this will trigger, including at home, because he will internalize this story and he will decide in the medium term to leave power. During the events of May 68, the United States deployed an important intelligence system. The CIA infiltrates all student collectives. Is it just a simple collection of information ? Or an attempt at destabilization? It is not impossible that in 68, there were many people who considered that it was perhaps also an opportunity to get rid of de Gaulle and to push pawns because it is not a question of not simply to push de Gaulle, you have to have an alternative, to push de Gaulle for the sake of pushing de Gaulle doesn't make much sense, in politics I mean, if you don't have the guy you're going to support , the thing, the thing, etc. There is also the monitoring of events because here too, it’s like the OAS, you had to stay informed, have people everywhere. If de Gaulle wrote about May 68 in his memoirs, he made no mention of the United States during this period. However, a few months before his death, he confided in his grandsons.   In particular, he revealed to them a secret about one of the leaders of the student crisis which, if proven, would say a lot about American practices in France. I heard my grandfather explain to us that he knew that the CIA obviously, as it had done regularly during its exercise of power, to add fuel to the fire as long as it could. she could do so because the Americans' interest was to weaken General de Gaulle, I am not saying to denounce him but to weaken him so that he would be less present on the international scene. He knew that the CIA financed it, he had given us the name, for example it was the CIA which financed Sauvageot, well without giving any particular elements of demonstration and proof, but I heard it. It is difficult to question the information coming from a man like de Gaulle. But neither the CIA nor the Sauvageot family wished to speak. De Gaulle left power with a domestic political setback on April 28, 1969. He left not without having finally reconciled with the country that had made his life so difficult since 1940. This was mainly thanks to Richard Nixon, the newly elected President of the United States in November 1969. The understanding between the two men who have known each other since the 1950s is total. It will be until the death of Charles de Gaulle in November 1970.