De Gaulle

De Gaulle survived four turbulent years of the Second World War as the commander of the French forces. Despite this heroic role, US President Roosevelt preferred to deal with collaborators in occupied France, rather than the man who refused to surrender to Hitler. Roosevelt saw De Gaulle as a threat to America's plans for postwar Europe: France was to be occupied and run by a US-controlled military government, opening up her protected market to American big business. Defying the White House, De Gaulle became head of government in liberated France, but resigned when the politicians renewed their old games. In 1958, to save France from civil war, he was elected President of the Republic, and one of his first acts was to kick US forces out of France. Douglas Boyd's provocative account of how a great European fought to keep his nation free from American domination has an uncanny resonance with the continuing US interference in the affairs of other countries.