French Presidents
There will be no peace in Europe, if the states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty... The countries of Europe are too small to guarantee their peoples the necessary prosperity and social development. The European states must constitute themselves into a federation...
- Jean Monnet.
The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it!
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld.
List of French Presidents in the post-war period in the Ministry of Space TL.
DeGaulle, Charles (FF): 1944-46.
d'Argenlieu, Georges Thierry (-): 1946.
d'Argenlieu, Georges Thierry (MRP): 1946-53.
Schuman, Robert (MRP): 1953-60.
Leclerc, Jacques-Philippe (MRP): 1960-67.
Teitgen, Pierre-Henri (MRP): 1967-72.
Mitterrand, François (MRP): 1972-79.
Camus, Albert (PR): 1979-86.
Camus, Albert (PR): 1986-90 (Died in Office).
Pélégri, Jean (PR): 1990-1997.
Le Pen, Jean-Marie (FN): 1997-2004.
Sarkozy, Nicolas (PR): 2004+.
During the latter phase of the War, the British Empire basically quite and left and thereby leaving the responsibility for large parts of world’s security and future reconstruction in the hands of the United States of American. This was of course something of a problem for DeGaulle’s budding new French state as DeGaulle was if not directly anti-American then at very critical of the American policy and intentions. His openly bitter and hostile tone in regards to Britain too made DeGaulle seem increasingly problematic as a trustworthy ally. DeGaulle’s position was furthermore undermined by the failure to re-impose French rule over Madagascar. To the Americans and the remaining allied powers DeGaulle was becoming something of a problem as they needed a loyal and focused France, now that Britain was unresponsive to say the least. DeGaulle’s position was not strengthened by the fact that many within the French circles of power such as future President François Mitterrand and Georges-Augustin Bidault did their best to thwart his political initiatives at any turn and generally undermine his authority.
After the collapse of the Yalta Conference in early 1945, the rapidly expanding civil war in China and the uprising in Indo-China forced the French and Americans closer together. The French military, backed by a plethora of centre-right politicians, moved to dispose President DeGaulle. Being who he was, DeGaulle was not in any way tempted to leave quietly and in desperation sought an alliance with the far left, including the Communist Party (supported generously by Moscow), which nearly brought civil war to France as the streets of Paris erupted in violence. For over a week French gendarmes and military units fought DeGaulle’s supporters, while DeGaulle himself flew to Germany and pleaded with the commander of the French occupation force, the Armée du Rhin
(Army of the Rhine), there. No doubt spurred on by the pro-French General in Charge of the USAGG (US Army Group Germany), George Patton, the French general Leclerc moved to detain DeGaulle, but the old Colonel had his supporters still and managed to escape and ended up in self-imposed exile in Geneva, Switzerland. With DeGaulle out of the way, Admiral d'Argenlieu’s proclaimed the Fourth Republic.
Admiral Georges Thierry d'Argenlieu proved a most capable politician and President. He did much to generate trust in both his person and the Fourth Republic and did so well that he was elected President in ’46. Together with Leclerc, Monnet, Schuman and several other prominent Frenchmen, be they politicians or military men, d'Argenlieu created a nationalistic centre-right party – the Mouvement Républicain Populaire (Republican Popular Movement or MRP) -, that would dominated French politics for the next two decades (of course it helped that the secret services, the military and industrialists backed d'Argenlieu’s party and the far left and Gaullists was banned from running in elections).
Furthermore the British withdrawal from continental Europe finally completed put further pressure on the US Army as it strove to manage the occupation of Germany. Not surprisingly, the rearmament of France was stepped up and in the late 40’s nearly 20% of all servicemen serving in the occupation forces in Europe were French. The d’Argenlieu Presidency was in many ways remembered for the restoration of French military might; not only did France deploy a substantial force in Germany – some 5 divisions along with Belgian and Dutch units in the Armée du Rhin - it also fought an uprising in Indo-China and garrisoned its vast colonial empire.
Under the firm leadership of Minister for Colonial Affaires, Pierre-Henri Teitgen, the French military, commanded by Marshal of France, Jacques-Philippe Leclerc used innovative tactics and a classic Counter-Insurgency strategy to defeat the Viet Minh in Indo-China. With the backing and aide of the US in form of advisors, arms shipments and loans - the American s were heavily involved in the Chinese Civil War, but nonetheless found the resources to help their French allies - as well as a boosted Foreign Legion (its numbers inflated drastically by former SS and other unwanted leftovers from the War) and new air mobile formations and armour the French together with colonial forces smashed the Viet Minh movement in bloody and protracted campaign that would serve a text book example of how to defeat an insurgency. The final battle in the central highland valley of Ia Drang – known as the Vallée de la mort (Valley of Death) - legionnaires and Paras under Christian de Castries encircled and destroyed the last remnants of the Viet Minh movement. In mid-summer, 1956, President Schuman could declare la mission a accompli (mission accomplished).
Unfortunately the massive commitment to the occupation of Germany and the insurgency in Indo-China made it impossible for France to hold on to Syria as Soviet arms flowed into the country via Turkey. After a few counter-insurgency operations more for show than anything else the French withdrew to Lebanon and made it clear that they, and their American allies, would fight tooth and nail for Lebanon. To hammer home this point, Beirut became a major port for both French and American naval units and the main air base in the area for both countries air forces. Appropriately, is was from Beirut Naval Station that the USS New Jersey and the FS Jean Bart sallied to bombard Syrian positions near Antiocha during the Water War in ’80. The massive military presence served to generate huge revenues for the entertainment industry that soon grew up in especially Beirut and made Lebanon a very rich area indeed.
Only a few years later, the French would fight a fairly similar campaign in Algeria. This time their US allies would not, however, be distracted by another war. In Algeria, France backed by massive arms and aid shipments from their American allied fought a nasty, but highly successful counter-insurgency campaign based on their previous experiences. Under talented commanders like Jacques Massu and the victor of Indo-China Christian de Castries, France used tactics that evolved around helicopters – both home build Lynx’s and amply supplied US ones - and a combination of long range penetrations by elite units and land control missions by conscripted infantry and backed by massed armour. France and its armed forces had indeed come a long way since the dishonourable defeats in World War II. The Algerian Uprising brought forth a series of tough young(ish) Pieds-Noirs and Harkis and within 10 years they would be a major factor in French politics. While a man like Albert Camus was both level headed and open minded, most Pieds-Noirs has a reputation for being stubborn and confrontational when it comes to politics. It is no coincidence that France under the Republican Party has become more assertive, but, not to forget, also more egalitarian.
The relationship between France and the US were at times severely strained, but US intervention in Indo-China and massive aid during the late 40’s and most of the 50’s saw France emerges as a stout and dependable ally and partner around the globe. The mere fact that France’s third atomic Fleet Carrier, Lafayette, was build in Norfolk – but still equipped with Thomson electronics, naturally, and Dassault Chevalier and Faucon’s warplanes - speaks volumes of the special cross-Atlantic relationship shared by the two countries. Furthermore, the three countries work closely together in intelligence and space related matters.
Of course with several thousands of French troops serving in Germany, as well as the special cross-Atlantic relationship, it was only natural that France had quite an influence on the future of Germany. Few doubt that it’s due to French pressure and insistence that the German Federation was so loosely bound together politically as was and still is. With especially Bavaria, the Rhinebund and Austria lobbying for influence at each others expense, Germany will never be a danger to France again. Naturally, said policy took a beating when the USSR collapsed and the former Communist People’s Republic of Prussia once more became a member of the German Federation, but so far able French politicians in both the Presidential Palace and Quai d’Orsay have so far been able to keep Germany from truly uniting.
All in all France was very active on the diplomatic scene and one of the greatest achievements for the Schuman Presidency was the creation of the Communauté Française (French Community) in 1960. The French Community was a francophone pendant to the British-led Commonwealth of Nations and proved quite successful over the years, albeit getting France in hot water as a delegation from the Canadian province of Quebec in 1965 petitioned for acceptance. This, along with the appearance of a violent Quebec Libré Mouvement, led to a rather strained relationship with Canada and thus its Commonwealth allies for some time. President Leclerc, however, handled the situation with supreme delicacy and in secret ordered the Direction Generale de la Securite Exteriure (General Directorate for External Security) to aid the Canadian authorities and thus put an end to the violence in Quebec (with a little bit of help from British COIN-experts from the SAS).
Still, France and the German Federation works well and often closely together as seen in the Franco-German spacegun programme under French-married Gerald Bull. The French, and their German partners, hope to launch satellites that would give them some independence from their US allies and add some new and potent space weaponry to their aging arsenal as a counter to the ever increasing Commonwealth influence.
France got to use some of their new toys in the brief Water War in 1980 where Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Turkey clashed over Palestine and, which was the whole point of the war, access to the water in the area. For a few days the world tethered on the edge of a major war as the greater powers were nearly drawn in to the fighting ob their various puppets sides. Cooler minds prevailed and the failures of the Turks and Syrians to coordinate their actions saw Moscow lose faith in their ability to secure the area and withdraw their support. Thus the war ended with a whimper.
The latest three presidential elections in France have been hotly contested and extremely unpleasantly, even after the standards of French politics. With the collapse of the MRP after a series of scandals resulting in prison sentences for senior leaders like Mitterrand, Mégret and Chirac, and the unbanning of leftist parties the fire came back to French politics. When the much beloved Camus died in 1990 it would appear that a no holds barred attitude has entered French politics. The Parti Républicain (Republican Party) and the Front National are both right-wing parties - the RP being the more centrist of the two, but the FN reaching out to many former MRP-voters -, but find little common ground mostly due to personal indifferences as the ex-legionnaire Sarkozy and ex-Para Le Pen both seems to hate each other with unseen passion (even in French politics). The infighting on the centre-right is feared be many political commentators, and hoped for be others, to bring the Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party) into the Élysée Presidential Palace.
