DeGaulle's Republic

Leaders who manage to quiet the turbulent French political scene usually stay around to enjoy the calm. The two Napoleons lasted quite a while, as did Louis XIV. Charles DeGaulle, the present president of the French, shows no signs of folding early. Elected to a seven-year term in 1958, the General reportedly intends to resign shortly to seek immediate re-election. Should de Gaulle be successful at the polls again, his term would run roughly until 1970--a total tenure of twelve years. In a country whose people can scarcely remember a chief of state who lasted twelve months, de Gaulle's reign would represent a sharp break with the recent French past.

Already the General has proved himself an extraordinary ruler. Unlike his predecessors, he is more than just a politician. Among other things he is an historian with a rich sense of the French past and some pronounced ideas about the French future. When de Gaulle reflects on the international situation, his thoughts are inevitably those of a French historian. The idea of European union recalls Bonepart's continental system; it is an appealing memory. The more pressing problems of the Atlantic alliance and international Communism evoke less attractive images. The General remembers the four untidy years he spent in London squabbling with British and American authorities while the French Communists fought to liberate France. Nor has he forgotten that the Americans long refused to recognize his government in exile, and that Winston Churchill quipped, "The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine."

The General has his own views on issues of the Cold War and questions of allegiance. Western statesmen find de Gaulle enigmatic because yearly he becomes more unlike the French officials with whom they have dealt in the past. The new line is epitomized by de Gaulle's insistance on a nuclear force of his own. To the de Gaullist, the six Mirage bombers that France has managed to produce represent not the world's smallest nuclear armory, but France's credentials as a power. To the General's mind, NATO is a vestige of the time when only strong American support insured the independence of an exhausted Europe.

In the past year, the French have balked at an American effort to create a multinational navy. The proposal calls for the ships to be supplied by the participating nations while the nuclear armaments will be furnished by the United States. The French have boycotted discussions of the proposal, claiming that multinationality is an American attempt to get the European nations to finance the U.S. Navy.

The central component of de Gaulle's nationalism is a mistrust of international organization. The united Europea he envisions is not a system of closely integrated national entities. Rather it is an alliance of foreign policies that would be canalized through the government of the strongest--quite naturally France. In the meantime, France will flex her muscles where she likes. Last year's Franco-German friendship treaty has provoked the charge within the Atlantic Alliance and Common Market that France is seeking a "special relationship" with West Germany. Despite breast-beating denials in Paris, the terms of the treaty quite clearly ally the two republics in a "special" way. More recently, France has made her presence felt in the Far East. De Gaulle's periodic call for a united, neutral Viet Nam "free of foreign influences" has brought several complaints from Washington. Furthermore, French businessmen and government officials are traveling regularly to Communist China with the intent of securing better trade relations.

Already de Gaulle has broken conclusively with the ninety years of irresolute, republican government that preceded him. Given another seven years in office it is difficult to tell where he will take France. Certainly he will lead his nation away from the path of earlier republican uncertainty; probably he will guide them alone, for the General appreciates solitude. "Take the loftiest possible position," he has remarked tellingly. "It is inevitably the least crowded."