Charles de Gaulle

<p>Charles de Gaulle was born on November 22, 1890, in Lille, France. Graduating from the Saint-Cyr military academy, he fought with distinction in World War I, being wounded repeatedly at Verdun. During the 1930s, he was an ardent proponent of mechanized armored warfare and mobile tank divisions, though French high command largely ignored his warnings.</p><p>Following the fall of France in June 1940, de Gaulle fled to London and delivered his historic BBC radio broadcast—the <em>Appel du 18 juin</em> (Appeal of 18 June)—declaring that France had lost a battle but not the war, and calling on the French nation to resist. As leader of the Free French Forces and head of the French Committee of National Liberation, he unified the internal Resistance under Jean Moulin and marched triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées during the Liberation of Paris in August 1944.</p><p>Returning to power during the Algerian crisis in 1958, de Gaulle established the <strong>French Fifth Republic</strong>, drafting a presidential constitution that restored political stability. He oversaw Algerian independence, spearheaded French nuclear deterrence (the <em>force de frappe</em>), and pursued an independent foreign policy. Resigning in 1969 after losing a constitutional referendum, de Gaulle retired to his modest home in Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, where he died suddenly on November 9, 1970. He was mourned worldwide as France's greatest 20th-century statesman.</p>