VIVE DE GAULLE: The Story of Charles de Gaulle

by Alfred Apsler ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1973

On the first page, young de Gaulle parcelling out toy soldiers among his brothers and proclaiming ""I am France"" assaults us by overdramatizing the obvious. But Apsler actually resorts to few such devices in his properly ambivalent assessment of the General's controversial career and character. On the one hand, Apsler shows his readers the personal arrogance and obsession with his role as the determiner of France's destiny which led Roosevelt to describe de Gaulle as ""the apprentice dictator,"" and even those unsubstantiated rumors that de Gaulle may have had a hand in the assassination of Darlan or the threatened army coup which lofted him to power are considered worthy of mention. However, there's also guarded admiration for de Gaulle the political pragmatist who sponsored postwar reforms despite his conservatism and who recognized, before so many of his countrymen, that the era of colonialism had passed. Readers with only a limited knowledge of World War II and the Algerian revolt will have no trouble following the accounts here, and the biographer's reluctance to pass final judgment on his subject (""What is one to call the de Gaulle regime? An autocratic democracy? A royal republic? . . ."") is to his credit.

Pub Date: March 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION