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de Gaulle, Charles

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(shärl dӘ gōl), 1890–1970, French general and statesman, first president (1959–69) of the Fifth Republic. During World War I de Gaulle served with distinction until his capture in 1916. In The Army of the Future (1934, tr. 1941) he foresaw and futilely advocated for France the mechanized warfare by which Germany was to conquer France in 1940. In World War II he was promoted to brigadier general (1940) and became undersecretary of war in the cabinet of Premier Paul Reynaud. De Gaulle opposed the Franco-German armistice and fled (June, 1940) to London, where he organized the Free French forces and rallied several French colonies to his movement. He was sentenced to death in absentia by a French military court. The Free French forces were successful in Syria, Madagascar, and N Africa. In June, 1943, de Gaulle became copresident, with Gen. Henri Honoré Giraud , of the newly formed French Committee of National Liberation at Algiers. He succeeded in forcing Giraud out of the committee, and…
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French general and statesman, first president (1959-69) of the Fifth Republic. De Gaulle's experience of World War 1 (captured 1916), convinced him of the need to modernize the French army. In 1940 he became undersecretary of war, but fled to London after the German invasion. He organized French…
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French general. Leader of the Free French during World War II, he became head of the provisional government, and later Prime Minister (1958). As President of the Fifth Republic, he implemented an assertive foreign policy, but in 1969 resigned after the defeat of his referendum proposals for senate…
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Full text Article FRANCE

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
France was long a despotism tempered by epigrams. CARLYLE, Thomas History of the French Revolution (1837). There’s always something fishy about the French. COWARD, Sir Noël Conversation Piece (1934). …
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Full text Article ACTION

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Action is but coarsened thought – thought become concrete, obscure, and unconscious. AMIEL, Henri-Frédéric Journal , 1850. Our actions determine our dispositions. ARISTOTLE Nicomachean Ethics . …
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Full text Article POLITICS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Being an MP is the sort of job all working-class parents want for their children – clean, indoors and no heavy lifting. ABBOTT, Diane The Observer , 1994. Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. ADAMS, Douglas The Hitch Hiker’s Guide…
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Full text Article POLITICIANS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time. ADAMS, Franklin P. Nods and Becks (1944). [Of Lloyd George] He couldn’t see a belt without hitting below it. ASQUITH, Margot…
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Full text Article Gaulle, Charles de (1890–1970)

From The Oxford Companion to International Relations
The French military and political leader Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille on 22 November 1890 and educated in Paris. His father came from an old family of soldiers, lawyers, and writers belonging to the small nobility and his mother from a bourgeois small-business family; both were ardent…
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Full text Article Charles de Gaulle 1890–1970

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
French soldier and statesman, wartime leader of the Free French movement; head of government 1944–6 and President 1959–69. On de Gaulle: see spears France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war! proclamation, 18 June 1940, in Discours, messages et déclarations du Général de Gaulle (1941) …
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The President of France from December 1958–April...
(b. 1890–d. 1970) president of France and military leader Charles de Gaulle represented French strength and resilience throughout his career, first as an officer during World War I and the interwar period, then as leader of the Free French government abroad during World War II, and finally as the…
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Full text Article de Gaulle, Charles

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(shärl dӘ gōl), 1890–1970, French general and statesman, first president (1959–69) of the Fifth Republic. During World War I de Gaulle served with distinction until his capture in 1916. In The Army of the Future (1934, tr. 1941) he foresaw and futilely advocated for France the mechanized warfare by…
| 709 words
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