DeGaulle--what a jerk!

Me

[ArcLight]

PBS has just been showing a two-hour documentary about the very difficult relationship between Churchill, Roosevelt and DeGaulle. While blame attaches to all three men, DeGaulle behaved so badly it's a wonder nobody just shot him. He was brilliant, cunning and a complete egomaniac.

[dinok]

He was FRENCH!!!!!!

What do you expect?

[Rodney King]

Yeah he was a real ass. We should have landed in the Netherlands instead of France.

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[billorites]

"He was brilliant, cunning and a complete egomaniac. "

Snappy dresser, though.

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

Supposedly a true story. During the Casablanca Conference between Churchill and FDR, Roosevelt complained that DeGaulle saw himself as a modern-day Joan of Arc. Churchill is said to have replied, "But my bishops won't let me burn him!" Even then, the Americans and British couldn't stand him.

[John H K]

Well, all of that is true about how annoying he was, but.....


1) In the German invasion in 1940, he was basically the only good French commander; led a tank counterattack that was successful, but he only commanded a division and it wasn't enough.

It's actually possible that if he'd been the French overall commander in 1940 that the French would have won. He had the right ideas about armor.

2) When all the other French were giving up and falling all over themselves to collaborate, De Gaulle remained a fierce Nazi opponent.

[God luvs America]

I just finished reading Stephen Ambrose- "D-Day: The Climatic Battle of WWII" amazing book!

In it he talks about how Eisenhower asked no-balls DeGaulle to encourage the french from his hideout in Algiers to use the Allies "dollar bills" rahter than the french franc and DeGaulle refused. DeGaulle was also no help when the allies wanted to get the message out to the resistance that the invasion was soon coming.

I remember watching a documentary years ago talking of how Eisenhower specifically ordered DeGaulle late in the battle of France not to send his tiny tanks into battle but no-balls sent them anyhow.

[Leisler]

The French hit their peak around 30 AD. More or less just milling about, and sucking and stabbing each others behinds ever since.

[onedoug]

DeGaulle thanked America profusely for holding his coat while he dusted off the Third Reich.

[MayDay72]

"The hardest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine." -General Spears, Churchill's envoy to France (sometimes falsely attributed to Churchill)

[LenS]

Landing in the Netherlands would have been a disaster -- the Germans could have simply broken the dykes and flooded our troops -- trapping them. In fact, they did that later and kept the Allies from clearing out much of the Netherlands until the war was over.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

And he was the single most responsible influence in causing the French in their newfound American hating and bashing. He hated Eisenhower because he thought Ike responsible for stealing his plunder during and after WWII and the liberation of Paris! He managed to convince the French population that America was their enemy, at least culturally. Could be! Since the 1950's the French have been trying to rid their language of our influence. Words like nosecone, weekend, drugstore, OK, and a few profanities are particularly annoying.