Editing Charles de Gaulle (section)

== 1944–1946: Provisional Government of the French Republic ==
{{Main|Provisional Government of the French Republic}}[[File:The Campaign in North-west Europe 1944-45 BU158.jpg|thumb|General de Gaulle with General Leclerc and other French officers at Montparnasse railway station in Paris, 25 August 1944]]Roosevelt insisted that an [[Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories]] (AMGOT) should be [[United States military government in France|implemented in France]], but this was opposed by both the Secretary and Under-Secretary of War, as well as by Eisenhower, who had been strongly opposed to the imposition of AMGOT in North Africa. Eisenhower, unlike Roosevelt, wanted to cooperate with de Gaulle, and he secured a last-minute promise from the President on the eve of D-Day that the Allied officers would not act as military governors and would instead cooperate with the local authorities as the Allied forces liberated French Territory. De Gaulle would later claim in his memoirs that he blocked AMGOT.<ref>Kim Munholland, ''Rock of Contention, Free French and Americans at War in New Caledonia 1940–1945'', Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford, 2005, p. 190.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

With the prewar parties and most of their leaders discredited, there was little opposition to de Gaulle and his associates forming an interim administration. In order not to be seen as presuming on his position in such austere times, de Gaulle did not use one of the grand official residences such as [[Hotel de Matignon]] or the [[Élysée Palace]], but resided briefly in his old office at the [[Ministry of War (France)|Ministry of War]]. When he was joined by his wife and daughters, they moved into a small state-owned villa on edge of [[Bois de Boulogne]] which had once been set aside for [[Hermann Göring]].<ref name="Werth">De Gaulle. Alexander Werth (1965)</ref>

On 10 November 1944, Churchill flew to Paris to a reception by de Gaulle and the two together were greeted by thousands of cheering Parisians on the next day.<ref name="winstonchurchill.org">{{cite web |date=25 May 2010 |title=Lion of Britain, Cross of Lorraine: Churchill and de Gaulle |url=http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour/issues-109-to-144/no-138/894-lion-of-britain-cross-of-lorraine-churchill-and-de-gaulle |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521023613/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/finest-hour/issues-109-to-144/no-138/894-lion-of-britain-cross-of-lorraine-churchill-and-de-gaulle |archive-date=21 May 2013 |access-date=14 January 2016 |publisher=winstonchurchill.org}}</ref> [[Harold Nicolson]] stated that [[Anthony Eden]] told him that "not for one moment did Winston stop crying, and that he could have filled buckets by the time he received the Freedom of Paris."<ref name="winstonchurchill.org" /> At an official luncheon, de Gaulle said: <blockquote>It is true that we would not have seen [the liberation] if our old and gallant ally England, and all the British dominions under precisely the impulsion and inspiration of those we are honouring today, had not deployed the extraordinary determination to win, and that magnificent courage which saved the freedom of the world. There is no French man or woman who is not touched to the depths of their hearts and souls by this.<ref name="winstonchurchill.org" /></blockquote>

=== Legal purges (''Épuration légale'') ===
{{Main|Épuration légale}}

Keenly aware of the need to seize the initiative and get the process under firm judicial control, de Gaulle appointed Justice Minister [[François de Menthon]] to lead the Legal Purge (''[[Épuration légale]]'') to punish traitors and clear away traces of the Vichy regime. Knowing that he would need to reprieve many of the 'economic collaborators'—such as police and civil servants who held minor roles under Vichy to keep the country running—he assumed, as head of state, the right to commute death sentences.<ref name="Fenby-2010" /> Of the near 2,000 people who received the death sentence from the courts, fewer than 800 were executed. De Gaulle commuted 998 of the 1,554 capital sentences submitted before him, including all women. Many others were given jail terms or had their voting rights and other legal privileges taken away. It is generally agreed that the purges were conducted arbitrarily, with often absurdly severe or overly lenient punishments being handed down.<ref name="Werth" /> Less well-off people who were unable to pay for lawyers were more harshly treated. As time went by and feelings grew less intense, a number of people who had held fairly senior positions under the Vichy government—such as Maurice Papon and [[René Bousquet]]—escaped consequences by claiming to have worked secretly for the resistance or to have played a double game, working for the good of France by serving the established order.<ref name="Werth" />

Pétain received a death sentence, which his old protégé de Gaulle commuted to life imprisonment, while [[Maxime Weygand]] was eventually acquitted. There was a widespread belief, particularly in the years that followed, that de Gaulle was trying to appease both the Third Republic politicians and the former Vichy leaders who had made Laval their scapegoat.<ref name=Werth />

=== Yalta and Potsdam ===

De Gaulle was never invited to the summit conferences of Allied leaders such as [[Yalta Conference|Yalta]] and [[Potsdam Conference|Potsdam]]. He never forgave the Big Three leaders (Churchill, Roosevelt and [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]) for their neglect and continued to rage against it as having been a negative factor in European politics for the rest of his life.<ref name=Schoenbrun />

After the [[Operation Plunder|Rhine crossings]], the French First Army captured a large section of territory in southern Germany, but although this later allowed France to play a part in the signing of the German surrender, Roosevelt in particular refused to allow any discussion about de Gaulle participating in the Big Three conferences that would shape Europe in the post-war world. Churchill pressed hard for France to be included 'at the inter-allied table', but on 6 December 1944 the American president wired both Stalin and Churchill to say that de Gaulle's presence would "merely introduce a complicating and undesirable factor".<ref>{{cite book|last=Winston S. Churchill|title=Triumph and Tragedy: The Second World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VArC_rYqimoC&pg=PA259|year=1950|page=259|publisher=RosettaBooks |isbn=978-0-7953-1147-5|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=7 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407132516/http://books.google.com/books?id=VArC_rYqimoC&pg=PA259|url-status=live}}</ref>

At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, despite Stalin's opposition, Churchill and Roosevelt insisted that France be allowed a post-war occupation zone in Germany, and also made sure that it was included among the five nations that invited others to the conference to establish the United Nations. This guaranteed France a permanent seat on the [[UN Security Council]].<ref name="Robottom">Robottom, John (1972) ''Modern Russia'', McGraw-Hill</ref>

=== Victory in Europe ===
[[File:General Charles DeGaulle presenting the French Grand Croix De La Legion to five Army and Navy officers.jpg|thumb|De Gaulle presenting the [[Legion of Honour]] to American Army and Navy officers [[William D. Leahy]], [[George C. Marshall]], [[Ernest King|Ernest J. King]], [[Henry H. Arnold]] and [[Brehon B. Somervell]]]]
In May 1945 the German armies surrendered to the Americans and British at Rheims, and a separate armistice was signed with France in Berlin.<ref name="Perry">Perry, K. (1976) ''Modern European History'', W.H. Allen; {{ISBN|0750604824}}</ref> De Gaulle refused to allow any British participation in the victory parade in Paris. However, among the vehicles that took part was an ambulance from the [[Hadfield-Spears Ambulance Unit]], staffed by French doctors and British nurses. One of the nurses was [[Mary Borden|Mary Spears]], who had set up the unit and had worked almost continuously since the [[Battle of France]] with Free French forces in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy. Mary's husband was General [[Edward Spears]], the British liaison to the Free French who had personally spirited de Gaulle to safety in Britain in 1940. When de Gaulle saw the [[Union Flag]]s and [[Flag of France|Tricolours]] side by side on the ambulance, and heard French soldiers cheering, "Voilà Spears! Vive Spears!", he ordered that the unit be closed down immediately and its British staff sent home. A number of French troops returned their medals in protest and Mary wrote, "it is a pitiful business when a great man suddenly becomes small."<ref>''The Day the War Ended''. London. Martin Gilbert (1995)</ref>

Another confrontation with the Americans broke out soon after the armistice when the French sent troops to occupy the French-speaking Italian border region of [[Val d'Aoste]]. The French commander threatened to fire on American troops if they tried to stop them, and an irate [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] ordered the immediate end to all arms shipments to France. Truman sent de Gaulle an angry letter saying that he found it unbelievable that the French could threaten to attack American troops after they had done so much to liberate France.<ref name=Schoenbrun />

Within the same month another crisis developed in [[Syria]] where French troops tried to quell nationalist protests at the continued occupation of the [[Levant]]. Winston Churchill opposed French action and after they refused to negotiate he ordered British forces into Syria from [[Emirate of Transjordan|Transjordan]] with orders to fire on the French if necessary.<ref name="Luce">{{cite book|last1=Luce|first1=Henry Robinson|title=Time |volume=45|date=1945|pages=25–26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U-ELAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> Known as the [[Levant Crisis]], British forces swept into Syria forcing the French to stand down, and with political pressure added by the United States and Soviet Union, the French ordered a ceasefire. This crisis further infuriated Truman, and France evacuated its troops later in the year but de Gaulle said to the British ambassador [[Duff Cooper]], 'you have betrayed France and betrayed the West. That cannot be forgotten'.<ref name="Fenby-2010"/>{{RP|p=47}}

De Gaulle was generally well received in the United States immediately after World War II and supported the US in public comments. He visited New York City on 27 August 1945 to great welcome by thousands of people of the city and its mayor [[Fiorello La Guardia]].<ref name="wnyc.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/story/charles-de-gaulle-city-hall-reception/|title=Charles de Gaulle City Hall Reception|publisher=WNYC|access-date=14 January 2016|archive-date=21 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121172548/http://www.wnyc.org/story/charles-de-gaulle-city-hall-reception/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="gettyimages.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-general-charles-de-gaulle-flanked-by-new-york-mayor-news-photo/102263730 |title=French General Charles de Gaulle flanked by New York Mayor Fiorello... Nachrichtenfoto 102263730 &#124; Getty Images |access-date=14 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140814192955/http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/french-general-charles-de-gaulle-flanked-by-new-york-mayor-news-photo/102263730 |archive-date=14 August 2014}}</ref> On that day, de Gaulle wished "Long live the United States of America". He visited [[New York City Hall]] and Idlewild Airport (now [[John F. Kennedy International Airport]]), and presented LaGuardia with the Grand Croix of the [[Legion of Honour]] award.<ref name="wnyc.org" /><ref name="gettyimages.com" />

=== New elections and resignation ===
Since the liberation, the only parliament in France had been an enlarged version of the Algiers [[Provisional Consultative Assembly]], and at last, in October 1945, [[1945 French legislative election|elections]] were held for [[National Constituent Assembly (France, 1945)|a new Constituent Assembly]] whose main task was to provide a new constitution for the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]]. De Gaulle favoured a strong executive for the nation,{{r|time19590105}} but all three of the main parties wished to severely restrict the powers of the president. The Communists wanted an assembly with full constitutional powers and no time limit, whereas de Gaulle, the Socialists and the [[Popular Republican Movement]] (MRP) advocated one with a term limited to only seven months, after which the draft constitution would be submitted for another referendum.<ref>Hilary Footitt and John Simmonds. ''France, 1943–1945'' (1988) pp. 228–59.</ref>

On 13 November 1945, the new assembly unanimously elected Charles de Gaulle head of the government, but problems immediately arose when it came to selecting the cabinet, due to his unwillingness to allow the Communists any important ministries. The Communists, now the largest party and with their charismatic leader [[Maurice Thorez]] back at the helm, were not prepared to accept this for a second time, and a furious row ensued, during which de Gaulle sent a letter of resignation to the speaker of the Assembly and declared that he was unwilling to trust a party that he considered to be an agent of a foreign power (Russia) with authority over the police and armed forces.<ref name=Schoenbrun />

Eventually, the new cabinet was finalised on 21 November, with the Communists receiving five out of the twenty-two ministries, and although they still did not get any key portfolios, de Gaulle believed that the draft constitution placed too much power in the hands of parliament with its shifting party alliances. One of his ministers said he was "a man equally incapable of monopolizing power as of sharing it".<ref>Ronald Matthews, ''The death of the Fourth Republic'' (1954) p. 121.</ref>

De Gaulle outlined a programme of further nationalisations and a new economic plan which were passed, but a further row came when the Communists demanded a 20-percent reduction in the military budget. Refusing to "rule by compromise", de Gaulle once more threatened to resign. There was a general feeling that he was trying to blackmail the assembly into complete subservience.<ref name=Werth /> Although the MRP managed to broker a compromise which saw the budget approved with amendments, it was a stop-gap measure.<ref name=Schoenbrun />

Barely two months after forming the new government, de Gaulle abruptly resigned on 20 January 1946. The move was called "a bold and ultimately foolish political ploy", with de Gaulle hoping that as a war hero, he would be soon brought back as a more powerful executive by the French people.<ref name="Hitchcock 2004 112">{{cite book|title=The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present|first=William I.|last=Hitchcock|publisher=Random House|year=2004|isbn=978-0-385-49799-2|page=112|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fFfhnC4mYccC&pg=PT112|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=14 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214235801/https://books.google.com/books?id=fFfhnC4mYccC&pg=PT112|url-status=live}}</ref> However, that did not turn out to be the case. With the war finally over, the initial crisis had passed. Although there were still shortages, particularly of bread, France was now recovering, and de Gaulle suddenly did not seem so indispensable. The Communist publication ''Combat'' wrote, "There was no cataclysm, and the empty plate didn't crack".<ref name=Werth />