The formidable intelligence policy of Charles de Gaulle

Archival Photo of the City of Montreal

Josée Legault

Monday, 24 July, 2017 11:45

UPDATE
Monday, 24 July, 2017 11:58

Look at this article

This July 24, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the “Vive le Québec libre!”, launched by Charles de Gaulle, president of the French Republic, from the balcony of the Montreal city hall.

Most daily newspapers in Quebec have highlighted this historic event in their own way.

This Saturday, the Newspaper published a superb special for the occasion. There are several pieces of insightful analysis, and even new discoveries about the famous speech by General de Gaulle. To read it, it’s here and to read my column “The hope disenchanted”, it is here.

Even today, many commemoration activities are held. It is the least of things.

Although the mayor of Montréal, Denis Coderre, is a mean-spirited, has denied the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the right to make a commemoration on the same balcony of the town hall.

Those interested in the subject can also watch the short film directed by Anaïs Barbeau Lavalette on the history of the famous microphone “forgot” and reconnected almost by a miracle on the balcony of the town hall for the General de Gaulle.

To visit the website of the Collective “I remember”, it is here. The collective – “I remember”, is a collective of short films historical. See also Babel Films.

***

A righteousness unwavering

For my part, allow me now to expand even more about shining the spotlight on Charles de Gaulle himself.

So let me also do so by taking a chronic, signed in 1996, in the pages of the Duty.

In a year of the 30th anniversary of the “Vive le Québec libre!” – as the time goes by too fast-I had to spend my review to this great statesman of the Twentieth century.

Man of freedom, this being an exceptional will have crossed the major part of his century, armed with a courage unfailing, righteous unshakable, of a political intelligence and formidable an intellect of a height not common.

The relevance of this text is also explained by the context in which I have prepared.

At the end of February 1996, just four months after the near-victory of Yes in the referendum, Lucien Bouchard had succeeded Jacques Parizeau as leader of the Parti québécois and premier of Québec.

However, upon his arrival in power, by some of his actions and statements, he appeared to me to be significantly clear that the new prime minister was about to introduce, little by little, next to the three main pillars of the sovereignty movement : the active promotion of this option, the defence of the French language and the social democracy. Which, over a period of months, has indeed materialized.

It is in this instinct of what would come after that as I was writing the chronicle below :

***

The passion of principles (Le Devoir, February 28, 1996)

In 1997, we will celebrate already the 30th anniversary of the famous “Vive le Québec libre !” from general de Gaulle. Next year, we will also have a constitutional conference and perhaps a provincial election. Meanwhile, there has there been an election or referendum federal level, a strengthening of the partitionnistes or a weakening of Quebec on the fronts that are essential to its survival ?

In the Face of volatility, that would think so, general ?

That looks like the one who, by his refusal of procrastination, had given enough of his countrymen to this supplement of soul essential to the defeat of the opponents of France – interior or exterior – and, ultimately, the re-conquest of its sovereignty ?

By avoiding an historical analogy too exaggerated, it remains that Quebec is entered since October 30, in one of the eras most dangerous in its history.

Everything is now possible, a slip unavoidably lead to the void at the majesty of an ultimate victory. Hence the appeal to the teachings of Charles de Gaulle, a supporter fierce for the sovereignty of peoples and thought.

Very early, de Gaulle understood that to save France from its opponents in and outside of a part corrupted herself, he had to make a mockery of the elites and groups of interests who were destroying the fiber.

Guided by his passionate love of France, he captures the real deep armed with an analysis of the cold, almost clinical. Drawing on a knowledge seasoned of History and a refusal of any opinion or mode that can weaken the France, de Gaulle assumed fully what he called its ” concern lucid love “.

The one that François Mauriac called “the rod of iron that would not bend” had a sense of pristine duty. The “do what you must’ ruled his own governance.

In 1940, de Gaulle wrote : “The duty to France [prohibited] the hesitation, the false prudence, the cowardly cares”. Of Stalin, he despised the sense bloated of the maneuvering and conspiracies.

A man of principles, he observed after the war that “it is one of the strange features of political life today that the issues deal not in their background, and as they arise, but in terms of what he called the “tactical” and that leads, sometimes, it seems, to abandon the positions they had sworn to defend.” He deplored also those who leave their programmes in order to avoid seizures and tremors, and, in so doing, cause a lot worse.

Throughout his life, de Gaulle preferred the offensive. Being inert, he said, it is to be beaten.

Unlike the French political class, he refused to ignore what was happening in Europe and rejected the policy of appeasement. Because during this time, he observed with perfect accuracy, “the greatness designs, the meanness is.”

De Gaulle knew that in any fight : “The reality is the enemy ! An enemy exploiting the easement to require more easement.” Later, he will keep even his allies the british and the americans who, themselves, were suspicious of the assertion of a France become able to say no.

This man lived in perfect symbiosis with France without ever trying to seduce her or to be loved. Even less to his opponents !

Only had for him the action of those who were willing to put the interests of France above their own. To the other that it was worth having to fight them because they were also his countrymen, the Story not well deal with.

Often alone, de Gaulle refused to surround yourself with those whose privileges and interests could erode their loyalty to France. For de Gaulle, the loyalty to France and the struggle for its sovereignty – the “people at the finrassemblé” – was to transcend the origins and special interests.

To do this, he had to, in his words, a national membership sufficient to be a majority.

But he knew that majorities do not get mobilized, that in the event of a major crisis or a popular consultation to be crucial, and that the search for such membership in other time is futile.

His “certain idea of France” was that of a political nation great by its culture, its laws and its modernity.

Against all odds, de Gaulle has returned to the very idea of the modern nation, its honour and its prestige. Which did not prevent him in any way to be a tireless apostle of franco-German reconciliation and the East-West rapprochement, but only after France had regained its full sovereignty.

In 1962, de Gaulle wrote : “The difficulties are difficulties, but France is France, and it must serve.”

His self-abnegation was the result of a conviction that there is in this world – in addition to our spirituality – something more than the daily survival of individuals. What that something is, it is the belonging to a collection of human – the political nation – that makes us different and invaluable.

If de Gaulle was among us and dared a new note on the fate of Quebec, it would perhaps remind us that the quebec nation will not take off if it is sustained by the commitment and dedication of those who love him, believe and be faithful against the odds.

If he was to enlighten us with his wisdom and of his science, it is indeed of them that it prodiguerait its tips and provide its small supplement of soul. In the circumstances, it would be a lot already.

***