Editing Jacques Chirac (section)

=== Education and early career ===
At age 16, Chirac wanted to learn [[Sanskrit]] and found a [[White émigré|White Russian]] Sanskrit teacher in Paris who ended up teaching him Russian; by age 17 Chirac was almost fluent in Russian.<ref name=":1" /> Inspired by [[Charles de Gaulle]], Chirac started to pursue a civil service career in the 1950s. During this period, he joined the [[French Communist Party]], sold copies of {{lang|fr|[[L'Humanité]]}}, and took part in meetings of a communist cell.<ref name=d>''[[France 3]]'', 12 November 1993</ref> In 1950, he signed the Soviet-inspired [[Stockholm Appeal]] for the abolition of [[nuclear weapon]]s – which led him to be questioned when he applied for his first visa to the United States.<ref name="l'Humanité1995">{{cite journal |url=https://www.humanite.fr/1995-05-08_Articles_-Jacques-Chirac-sabre-au-clair |title=Jacques Chirac, sabre au clair |date=8 May 1995 |access-date=17 December 2011 |journal=[[L'Humanité]] |language=fr |archive-date=29 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329031110/http://www.humanite.fr/1995-05-08_Articles_-Jacques-Chirac-sabre-au-clair |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1953, after graduating from the {{lang|fr|[[Sciences Po]]|italic=no}}, he attended a non-credit course at [[Harvard University]]'s summer school, before entering the {{lang|fr|[[École nationale d'administration]]|italic=no}}, which trains France's top civil servants, in 1957.<ref name=":0" />

In the United States, Chirac worked at [[Anheuser-Busch]] in [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/europe/jacques-chirac-former-french-president-died-intl/index.html |title=Jacques Chirac, former French president, is dead at 86 |access-date=26 September 2019 |publisher=CNN |date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=1 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001121733/https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/europe/jacques-chirac-former-french-president-died-intl/index.html/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chirac trained as a reserve military officer in [[armoured warfare|armoured cavalry]] at [[Saumur]].<ref>{{cite book |language=fr |first1=Pierre |last1=Péan |title=L'inconnu de l'Elysée |location= Paris |publisher=Fayard |year=2007 |isbn=978-2213631493 }}</ref> He then volunteered to fight in the [[Algerian War]], using personal connections to be sent despite the reservations of his superiors. His superiors did not want to make him an officer because they suspected he had communist leanings.<ref name=g>Emmanuel Hecht and François Vey ''Chirac de A à Z, dictionnaire critique et impertinent'', A. Michel, 1995, {{ISBN|2-226-07664-6}}</ref> In 1965, he became an auditor in the [[Court of Audit (France)|Court of Auditors]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/jacques_chirac-en-13bdfc92-f83f-4e62-aba8-2800aa9bde2f.html|title=Jacques Chirac|website=CVCE.eu|date=30 September 2019|access-date=17 January 2020|archive-date=1 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001121738/https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/jacques_chirac-en-13bdfc92-f83f-4e62-aba8-2800aa9bde2f.html/|url-status=live}}</ref>