二戰後的法國（冷戰）

France, for centuries the most formidable military power in Europe, was utterly obliterated by a German invasion in 1940. In six weeks, 90,000 soldiers fell to blitzkrieg attacks across and around their lines. After the fall of Paris, the Germans would set up a puppet government from the town of Vichy, while a government in exile resisted from London. Only four years later did the Allies manage to liberate France from German occupation. They then emerged as a victorious ally, with a 300,000-strong army, by the fall of Berlin. France had been, politically at least, almost entirely reset, but still at the head of a massive global empire. With a new provisional government in place, and a rapidly changing world, what would France do to ride out the 20th century? Je suis Donald David, et c'est la guerre froide! We wouldn't be able to tell the story of this era of French history without introducing you to Charles de Gaulle. An officer during the early years of the Second World War, he became the leader of the French government in exile during the German occupation in 1940. From London, he stood as the head of a rival French government to Vichy France. As the Vichy regime became more and more dictatorial, the exiled government, and de Gaulle himself, spoke as voices for maintaining the republic. This wasn't an easy thing. De Gaulle actually had to fight with the Allied powers for recognition over the Vichy regime. With a ragtag group of soldiers from around the French empire, he managed to eke out some victories against Vichy in the Middle East, and help the Allies in the fight against fascism. His insistence on maintaining the independence of French fighting forces, however, kept his political support from the Allies tenuous. His relationship with Winston Churchill, for example, can be summed up with maybe one of the most famous French quotes ever uttered, When I'm right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time. Through a strong relationship with General Eisenhower, he managed to make the liberation of France a priority for the Allied army. Eventually, French troops were the ones allowed to liberate Paris. From 1944 until 1946, de Gaulle ruled as the president of an interim French government. Most of the political parties of the pre-war government were gone, so the new republic would be like a political reset button on the country. His main priorities were to prevent French communists from having a significant influence over the post-war government by actions such as delegitimizing communist segments of the French resistance, who had spent years in the country actively resisting German occupation. Meanwhile, French soldiers worked with the US army to push into German territory and stem the quick gains the Soviets were taking in the East. Now, despite this, the big geopolitical issue de Gaulle was starting to worry about was that France didn't seem to have a seat at the table in conferences deciding what the post-war world would look like. France wasn't invited to Yalta, France wasn't invited to Potsdam, and he harbored resentment for the Big Three, the UK, the US and the USSR, and he harbored that resentment for the rest of his life. Especially for the latter, as at Potsdam, the Allies divided up Vietnam, which had been a French colony. His defiance of the agreement to make Vietnam independent led him to start a conflict which would not only begin the war in Indochina, which we've made a video about previously on the Cold War, but spill over into the Vietnam War, which we will be getting into far, far more depth in future videos. 1945, France had its first elections since liberation, intending to start a fresh, new Fourth Republic. Immediately, there was drama over who held power where. Those communists that de Gaulle wanted to call the power of came through in decent numbers, and the new political parties did not want a strong presidency, which was something de Gaulle dearly wanted. De Gaulle was made President, but refused to allow any members of the Communist Party, the largest party in the Assemblée Nationale, any ministry positions. They also fought over a communist-proposed reduction in military spending. The fights led de Gaulle to resign in anger, calling the Communist Party agents of the Soviet Union. So with de Gaulle acting like a petulant 192cm tall child taking his ball and going home, we had the birth of the Fourth French Republic. They had to pass a constitutional referendum, which had a powerful Prime Minister and a mostly symbolic presidency. France also had many economic woes, salved only by the injection of funds from the Marshall Plan. Much of the strings attached to it forced France to keep a rather liberal economy and good relations with West Germany, possibly stemming the influence of the communists. Eventually, the volatile role of the Communist Party also came under fire. They ultimately lost out of the governing coalition, which put France decidedly on the side of the capitalist West during the Cold War, albeit one with more than its fair share of attitude towards its allies. But we'll get to that later. Like the United Kingdom, France also struggled to hang onto its colonial holdings as those colonies insisted on the uncomfortable demand for self-rule. Besides the losing struggle with the Vietnamese in Indochina, the French found themselves embroiled in decolonization fights in North Africa. In 1955, after decades of civil unrest, the French allowed Tunisia to gain independence but with French control of the army and navy, not unlike the British Dominion system. Eventually, they caved to political pressure and less than a year later, gave Tunisia full independence. They also released Morocco from protectorate status around the same time. But these were not kind acts of generosity. No, France was desperately focused on fighting another war in Algeria. At this time, Algeria had a large number of European settlers. Unlike other colonies, France considered Algeria an integral part of the country, even attempting to give Algerians the rights of French citizens. Shortly after the Second World War, an army of native Algerians began a violent struggle for independence. France determined not to lose another colony after Indochina was ready to fight to the bitter end, especially somewhere they considered to be as French's hand-rolled cigarettes and Jerry Lewis. But the story of what happened in Algeria ultimately is a story we should save and will save for its own video, possibly even two videos. What it does tie into, however, is the story of how the Fourth Republic came to a crashing end in 1958. The wars and political strife made the French government unstable to say the least. Angry over the weak French government in the face of native resistance, settler-colonialist white Algerians took over the government buildings in the Algerian capital of Algiers. Troops from this movement then suddenly captured the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon. It appeared as if France was close to a civil war. In desperation, the Paris government reached out to the one leader this new movement and its political rivals seemed to respect, Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle agreed to help reform France. He wanted six months with special powers, essentially a dictatorship. With this power, de Gaulle changed what he disliked about the French constitution. He drafted a new constitution, one with a much stronger presidency and the question of adopting its new constitution was put to the French people, including the overseas territories, in a referendum. It was approved with a massive 82.6% of voters in favour. Colonies had to choose between the new constitution or independence, which all but Guinea agreed to. And that's how Guinea got its independence. Anyway, the implementation of the new constitution came with an election in 1958 which de Gaulle and his party won by a considerable majority. This election marked the birth of the 5th French Republic. France faced the end of the 1950s with its second government and second colonial war since the Second World War. De Gaulle would become a notorious figure on the world stage. He would make further reforms to the French government and oversee France's development of nuclear weapons. A big thing because, fun fact, France got the atomic bomb in 1960 and then proceeded to test those weapons an incredibly high number of times for a nation that joined the nuclear club as relatively late as it did. Furthermore, France is to this day overwhelmingly powered by nuclear power plants and one of the world leaders on the development of fusion technology. France and atomic research. We don't think about it much but they really are global leaders in that field. But France at that time was still in a precarious position. It was one of the prime targets if the Cold War went hot. It had just lost a war in Vietnam and was embroiled in a war in Algeria. They were part of the losing side of the Suez Crisis, damaging an already tarnished reputation. France did, however, had the opportunity to play a leading role on the world stage to build an alliance of capitalist countries in Western Europe. It was and is still a permanent security council member in the United Nations and a member of NATO. Well, at least for now, but we'll need to talk more about that a little later. France, especially in the English-speaking world, often has a bit of a joke reputation. A quick look at the history memes subreddit is proof of that. But ask yourself honestly if that's really a fair assessment of the Fourth and Fifth Republics. France still had a significant military force and certainly a top-class domestic military-industrial complex. It was also a significant economic power in Europe and vitally possessed a key geographical position in the Cold War. France was a critical part of the Western Bulwark standing against the Soviet Union but one which was not afraid to do things its own way in the face of opposition from their own allies. We hope you've enjoyed today's topic and to make sure you don't miss future episodes including ones on Algeria, on France vs NATO, and maybe just me drinking wine, please make sure you're subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button. We can be reached via email at thecoldwarchannel at gmail.com. We're also active on Facebook and Instagram at thecoldwartv. If you enjoy our work, please consider supporting us via www.patreon.com This is the Cold War Channel and don't forget, the trouble with a cold war is that it doesn't take too long before it becomes heated.