The Enemy's House Divided

Charles De Gaulle 1890 - 1970 Charles Andre Joseph Marie de Gaulle was born in 1890 in Lille, France. He attended Saint-Cyr Military Academy before serving in World War I at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, where he was wounded three times and finally taken prisoner by the Germans.

After the war he became the Aide-de-Camp to Marshal Henri Petain. In this position he won prominence with his advocacy of a highly mechanized French Army. He eventually attained the rank of Brigadier General during World War II. De Gaulle escaped to London when France fell and formed a French national committee in exile there. The committee was officially recognized by the Allies in 1942, and de Gaulle became President of the Free French. The forces under his command joined with British forces in an attack on Syria in 1941 and took control of Madagascar in 1942. In 1943, de Gaulle joined the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers, as co-president with General Henri Giroud. A few months later, he became sole president of the committee and moved the headquarters to Paris after the Allies liberated France in 1944. It was recognized as the de facto government of France.

In 1945, de Gaulle became the provisional president of France, but resigned two months later. He then organized a new political movement in 1947 called "The Rally of the People of France" or the RPF. In the 1951 elections, the RPF won the most seats in the assembly. But even with this victory, de Gaulle chose to retire from politics in 1953. In 1958, civil war breaks out in France over whether to allow Algiers their independence. De Gaulle was called in to act as Premier and the National Assembly granted him power to rule by decree for six months and to create a new constitution.

De GAulle was elected President of the Fifth Republic on January 8, 1959. During his first term, he instituted economic, industrial and governmental reforms, negotiated Algerian independence and lead France