De Gaulle and the United States: A Centennial Reappraisal

(Paperback)

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- The first scholarly study of the entire sweep of the stormy De Gaulle-US relationship from the 1930s to 1969. - Features eyewitness accounts of Henry Kissinger and the former French Prime Minister, Pierre Messmer. This absorbing book analyses the turbulent De Gaulle-U.S. relationship from 1940, when Germany unexpectedly and swiftly defeated the French army, to 1969, when President De Gaulle withdrew from public life. Drawing on hitherto inaccessible archives, it features vivid recollections of both French and American eyewitnesses, including Henry Kissinger, the former French Prime Minister, Pierre Messmer, and many of De Gaulle's close associates. It also explores the roller-coaster of American popular feelings about De Gaulle, and addresses larger issues of American vs. European approaches to foreign policy and American scholars' current assessments of De Gaulle's long-term impact on France and the world.

Reviews

'...well worth having and contains not only some interesting factual material but also ideas about how de Gaulle's policies should be assessed that suggest that the subject is by no means a closed one.' The Times Higher Education Supplement 'A delightful book, absorbing, full of anecdotes and insights of the man who was Charles de Gaulle.' USI 'All in all, this book is enormously useful for its many astute analyses of policy conflicts and as a delightful source for stories told by former government officials close to de Gaulle or to American presidents.' The International History Review

Author Bio

Robert O. Paxton Mellon Professor of Social Sciences,Columbia University Nicholas Wahl Milton Petrie Professor of European Studies, New York University