The three gifts of General de Gaulle

Ukrainian article of the week published in the 70th edition of the "What about Ukraine" newsletter on March 27th, 2025. The column was written by Vitaly Portnikov for Zbruc and was translated for n-ost by Olesia Storozhuk. Find the original article in Ukrainian here.

How the French General’s leadership in war and peacetime offers lessons and opportunities for Europe today.

I have never been a great fan of Charles de Gaulle’s personality. I have read numerous books about the General and the France of his time, and have been fascinated by his courage during World War II. However, I have always been repulsed by his mistrust of what I believe in: Euro-Atlantic solidarity, the need for an alliance between the United States and Europe, and the US’s leading role as a guarantor of European and global security against authoritarian regimes. But, like many of those who underestimated the General, I was wrong. We should have better understood his talent to anticipate the future.

I was not the first person to misunderstand de Gaulle. Many of his contemporaries also failed to appreciate him. When he started fighting the Nazis after France’s surrender to Germany in 1940, many French saw him not only as a helpless romantic, but also as a dangerous instigator. France was enchanted by the charisma of another military figure — the First World War hero Marshal Philippe Pétain, who became head of the collaborationist Vichy France regime, but guaranteed a form of stability after the inevitable defeat in the war.

Even France’s Allies considered de Gaulle to be someone who did not live in the real world. They recognised the legitimacy of the Nazi government established in Vichy and tried to convince themselves that it was true France. Only when the power balance started changing in favour of the Allies, did they need de Gaulle — as a symbol for a new France and a force capable of fighting the Nazis and their French henchmen.

Nevertheless, the allies did not see him as an indisputable hero. The Polish essayist Andrzej Bobkowski wrote that the French spoke of de Gaulle as the person who saved the honour of France, while Pétain saved its very existence. However, it was due to de Gaulle that France became one of the victorious countries, gained a seat in the UN Security Council, and became a nuclear state.

De Gaulle faced his second challenge when leading France during the Algerian crisis in the early 1960s, as the North African nation fought for independence. At that time, many French people pinned their hopes on him, and expected him to return stability to France, and keep Algeria as part of the Republic. But de Gaulle made another decision: he assessed the situation soberly, started negotiations with the supporters of Algeria's independence, and eventually renounced that territory.

Was it possible to keep control over Algeria? Today, looking at the Russian experience, we know the price of such efforts. In the 1990s, the Russian president Boris Yeltsin chose the opposite path to de Gaulle. He used military might against Chechnya’s ambitions for independence, but this laid the foundation for transforming Russia into an absolute monster, an aggressive state that draws inspiration from bloody wars.

In World War II, de Gaulle saved France’s honour, and during the Algerian crisis, he saved his country’s soul and freedom.

Nevertheless, at that time de Gaulle also demonstrated his mistrust of the Euro-Atlantic idea. As president in the 1960s, he took France out of the military organisation of NATO, leaving it only in the political union, returned full control of the Armed Forces to Paris, and achieved the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

This left the US President Lyndon Johnson with deep concerns and spoiled the relations between France and America. The country returned to the NATO military structure only 40 years later, under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.

For many years, De Gaulle’s decision seemed to be an anachronism. But not anymore.

No one has left us instructions on how to act if the US should break Euro-Atlantic solidarity, and if the United States were to be headed by a President contemptuous of democracy, morale, and shared values with Europe — the foundations of global security after World War II.

Such a situation seemed unbelievable in the past, as this was prevented by the two-party system of the US, which excluded the possibility of the emergence of an influential far-right political movement. No one believed that the classical Republicans would become such a force. No one even conceived of America’s withdrawal from NATO, and the importance of an independent choice for Europe.

This “anachronistic” decision of the French General gives Europeans a chance to survive Donald Trump’s presidency, if it becomes a temporary aberration, or the chance to ensure security on its own, if America and Europe drift apart for good.

Thanks to de Gaulle, France can handle its nuclear arsenal independently and discuss a common deterrence model with its European partners. So far, these are just at a declarative stage, but they have a real foundation — and it was the General who built it.

Now that we live through one of the most critical moments in history, I wonder: how could one not consider that our civilization could develop in a different way? How could anyone be so overconfident to believe that the model that emerged after World War II would last forever?

The past often becomes the present. So, why did we not plan for a scenario for when America leaves Europe? That the United States might again become a distant land over the ocean, as it was before World War II?

Almost no one has anticipated that.

Except for de Gaulle.

But unlike his contemporaries, the General did not just anticipate such a situation, but acted on his belief. For the first time, he saved France's honour; for the second time — its freedom; and for the third time, he can save its security.

Let us hope that his last gift will prove to be a saving grace for the whole of Europe. Even for those of us who have not appreciated it properly so far.