de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle · French general and statesman (1890–1970) · 1890–1970

Appears in 76 videos · 111 passages, 26 of them in depth.

Summary

Dominique Pagani says he voted against de Gaulle all his life. Yet he presents him as a man of the right who never claimed to be on the left, and ranks him above today's leaders1 2. What he mainly retains is his anti-Atlanticism: the Phnom Penh speech against the Vietnam War, the withdrawal from NATO's integrated command, the empty-chair policy, the demand for gold in exchange for dollars. In his account, this earned de Gaulle the hostility of the Atlanticists and of the far right, up to the Petit-Clamart assassination attempt3 4 5. To him, Gaullism and communism are the two mass forces that came out of the Resistance. He sets this France against Pétain's6 7. He takes two ideas from Clouscard: in 68, de Gaulle plays the "stern father" whom liberals and libertarians join forces to overthrow, and the leftists who claimed to be to the left of the Communist Party were actually to his right8 9. He also stresses that anti-Gaullism is ambivalent, since one can oppose de Gaulle for opposite reasons. Finally, he likens Gaullism to Bonapartism.

Summary produced automatically from 113 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany and its puppet state of Vichy France in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy back in France. Following the 1958 Algiers putsch, he came out of retirement at the request of President René Coty, who appointed him Prime Minister. […]

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Cycle 11 · 3 Mar 2023War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism

1:03:08A statesman, unlike Mitterrand, a politician.
1:15:03The Atlanticists tried to get rid of him; the empty chair in Brussels, refusal of Great Britain, opposition to NATO.
1:19:16A man of the right whom Pagani fought, but who never claimed to be on the left.

Talks · 17 Jun 2017Adotevi: Negritude and negrologists (1)

27:27He suggests to Senghor that "community" may tomorrow mean independence.
32:19He organizes the 1958 referendum; humiliated by Sékou Touré's speech in Conakry, he has everything withdrawn within a week.

Cycle 14 · 21 Oct 2025The silences of the media uproar: the Atlanticist re-Nazification

10:11A right-wing man who nationalizes industries and takes France out of NATO's integrated command; yet he always voted against him.

Cycle 14 · 29 Aug 2025State and state apparatus: the conflict between public and private

19:06he voted against Gaullist power; excluding both Gaullists and communists recalls the hunting down of resistance fighters
21:46example of confusion: one can be anti-Gaullist over Algeria or because he is the man of the Resistance.

Talks · 7 Feb 2025Michel Clouscard and the betrayal of May 68

52:31A man of the right, yet he drove out NATO: the left wing of the PC in 68 was to his right.
58:48He wanted to bring in the army.

Talks · 2 Dec 2024Napoleon, or the reasons of cunning

16:20Like Napoleon, knew how far not to go back; parallel drawn between Bonapartism and Gaullism.

Cycle 12 · 14 Aug 2024Too late?

18:40Anti-Atlanticist but not against the Atlantic alliance: loyal during the Cuban crisis, he abolishes the integrated command.

Cycle 12 · 30 May 2024From fidelity to grace: from substance to subject

29:53A man of the right, he expels NATO's headquarters and refuses to let France be vaporized for the Americans.

Cycle 12 · 22 Dec 2023Birth and carnage: the Massacre of the Innocents

1:39:26The "stern father" whom liberals and libertarians allied to overthrow; he still imposed the plan.
2:06:10The positive aspects of his foreign policy.

Cycle 12 · 17 Oct 2023Neither left nor right? Islamo-leftism?

1:26:11An avowed man of the right, preferable to the Vichyist right; he said he was beyond left and right.
1:37:18The Gaullist right allied with the Communists at the Liberation.

Cycle 10 · 24 Mar 2022#11 Ukraine: mathematics unites men, politics divides them (Aristotle)

1:40:24A right-wing man who knew what right and left mean; loyal to the Atlantic Alliance but not to the integrated command.

Cycle 10 · 24 Feb 2022#10 Ukraine: from the problem of “edges” to the unleashing of war

1:30:11One can be anti-Gaullist for opposite reasons; he salutes his foreign policy: Phnom Penh, Algeria, the withdrawal from NATO's integrated command.

Series · 17 Nov 2021Left-washing: are the woke the most asleep?

10:40A man of the right who never hid it; the false left stands to his right.
57:18His anti-Atlanticism hindered the Atlanticist takeover; he places the Gaullist right well above those who govern today.

Series · 31 Mar 2021“Red-browns”, “decolonial”: should we use the dominant language?

43:04His anti-Atlanticism brings him closer to the communists. The far right fought him because of decolonization, the empty chair policy, and the refusal of integrated command.
1:06:31The only right-wing exception in the anticolonial struggle, which explains the far right's hatred of him.
1:20:47He did not support the Vietnam War (Phnom Penh speech).

Talks · 5 Oct 2020Calves and Things (2): ecologism, the highest stage of capitalism?

13:12His remark "the French are calves," made at the Liberation, gives the "calves" of the title.

Cycle 7 · 5 May 2020#7 Harnessed to confinitude

1:06:52One can oppose him for opposite reasons; he saved the honor and maintained the independence of France.
1:18:04Caricatured more than anyone, he tolerated criticism from intellectuals.

Cycle 6 · 29 Mar 2020#6.6 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

1:00:05Positive aspects of his foreign policy; demanding gold for dollars earned him May '68.

Series · 10 Sept 2019M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)

1:35:58Threatened by Giscard over the putschists.
1:51:41Hostile to NATO and the dollar, Atlanticism tried to sideline him through the right.
2:23:08Gaullism and communism, the only opponents of Atlanticism in France.

Series · 2 May 2019Michel Foucault

16:59On the right, he was a nuisance to the Americans; he opposed the Vietnam War and withdrew France from the integrated command.
22:37Gaullism and communism, the only mass organizations of the Resistance.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.3 From Ulysses to Daedalus

58:40Voting against him out of nostalgia for French Algeria: an example of a bad reason for opposition.

Talks · 17 Jun 2017Adotevi: Negritude and negrologists (2)

2:42At the École normale, the students refuse to shake his hand, which causes a scandal.

Series · 1 Feb 2016Hegel on the Beach 2/5

56:39Being both anti-Gaullist and anti-communist has a historical precedent: Pétain.

Series · 26 Sept 2014#4 Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: on the thought of M. Clouscard

22:59The statue of the commander that must be thrown in the trash.
29:33His foreign policy is the only one in the West to stand up to the Americans over Vietnam.
37:31The OAS nearly killed him at Petit-Clamart.

Series · 7 Jul 2012Radio Galère: Michel Clouscard (2)

0:48The severe father, figure of the old France born of the victory over fascism, liquidated by a ritual murder.

Cycle 15 · 8 Oct 2026Nature vs. freedom?

53:33"Old age is a shipwreck."

Series · 6 Jul 2026From Plato to Proust

43:22"Old age is a shipwreck."

Talks · 23 May 2026Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?

14:11Hated by the expatriates for having "lost Algeria."
1:13:39A figure of Bonapartist right he prefers to false men of the left.

Talks · 16 May 2026Mali: a response to Emmanuel Macron's remarks at the Africa Forward summit

9:56He was never as close to death as during the OAS attack at Petit-Clamart.

Cycle 14 · 28 Feb 2026Their “Europe” means war

12:34One would weep today for a quarter of his progressivism.
42:10His France caught Germany in a pincer with Russia.
52:50A friend's English mother detested him.

Cycle 14 · 4 Feb 2026The return of fascism

17:11A man of the right, he never compared communists to Nazis: they were comrades in the struggle.

Cycle 14 · 9 Aug 2025The repression of the subject in bourgeois civil society

46:05A right-wing man he voted against, but under whom France obeyed neither NATO nor Brussels.

Cycle 13 · 17 Dec 2024The essence of evil: innocence of nature, horror of naturalism!

31:03Having left for London, illegal, he restores legitimacy with the Resistance communists.

Cycle 12 · 11 Jul 2024After the vote: entering a zone of turbulence

36:20Together with the communists, he prevented the extreme center from resurfacing.
1:30:43He denounced the Vietnam War and refused the loss of sovereignty to Brussels' Europe.

Cycle 12 · 24 Jun 2024For a “fresh and joyful” apocalypse?

28:28Voted against him, but prefers a quarter of De Gaulle to all of today's left on NATO and Europe.
39:18A man of the right who never claimed to be on the left.
2:11:14All-azimuth defense, a policy opposed to Brussels' Europe.

Cycle 12 · 1 Apr 2024The quest for the Grail, sanctimony or sacrilege?

46:09In De Gaulle's time, France was the least Atlanticist of the Western powers.

Talks · 23 Mar 2024Sahelian Africa and imperialism: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger

13:26Anti-Atlanticist whom the United States hoped to overthrow by flirting with the OAS.
1:24:30At the CNR, De Gaulle on the right and the communists on the left were two anti-Atlanticisms.

Cycle 12 · 28 Feb 2024Clouscard by you: answers to your questions

1:55:58Opposed Atlanticist imperialism in order to affirm national independence.

Cycle 11 · 26 Apr 2023Worldliness in Clouscard, or “the dominant ideology”

41:48Opposed to Pétain; "a certain idea" of France.
1:42:38The Parisian leftists were in fact to the right of de Gaulle.

Cycle 11 · 18 Mar 2023A springtime of the peoples?

3:01In '68, the leftists were said to be to the right of De Gaulle.

Series · 3 Jan 2023Why is Clouscard indispensable?

5:56Gaullism declines after '68, as does communism: these are the two forces of the Resistance.
8:29The leftists, who claimed to be to the left of the Communist Party, were in fact to the right of De Gaulle.

Cycle 11 · 14 Oct 2022Clouscard and the problem of Socrates

7:22The leftists proved to be to his right.

Cycle 11 · 28 Sept 2022And what about the subject in all this? Hölderlin, Mallarmé and Baudelaire

2:14:14Embodied legitimacy while being illegal.

Cycle 10 · 23 Jun 2022#15 Nietzsche: philosophical or musical relevance? Answers to questions

1:48:09"Vast program"; Atlanticism sought to bring it down as early as the 1960s.

Cycle 10 · 7 Apr 2022#12 From Kafka to Proust, the dialectical passage from the intermezzo to the perpetuated edge

1:39:12Targeted by the OAS at Petit-Clamart, opponent of NATO and the Americans.

Cycle 10 · 27 Jan 2022#8 Philosophising under threat

32:16For less than the submarine affair, he would almost have broken off diplomatic relations.
40:40Pétain is no less French than he is: to each his own France.

Cycle 10 · 23 Dec 2021#10.7 “Postmodern” eco-petty-Nazism: Plato's Gorgias

1:17:44The leftists of '68 were to his right.

Cycle 10 · 22 Sept 2021#10.1 The eternal irony of the community

1:27:24Remained in the Atlantic Alliance while keeping for France sovereignty over war and peace.

Series · 14 Jul 2021Everything is allowed, nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68 and the capitalism of seduction

10:26Personal power of an authoritarian, centralized government.
14:42The authoritarian father in the May 68 play.
17:32Went to Baden-Baden to see Massu to have the Sorbonne evacuated.

Series · 14 Jul 2021Everything's allowed, but nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68, French theory and capitalism

10:20He embodies a personal, authoritarian, and technocratic power.
14:49The authoritarian father in the May 68 play.
17:32He goes to Baden-Baden to see Massu in order to have the students expelled from the Sorbonne.

Series · 21 May 2021Heidegger, or panzer-philosophy

8:17Toward a Professional ArmyA young captain who had written before the war about the role of tanks and had seen the French delay.

Series · 28 Jan 2021#12 Nietzsche (right up) against Wagner

1:24:26He asks Leclerc to liberate Paris before the Americans.

Series · 11 Jan 2021#8 Happiness and unhappiness in music

43:58Resigns in 1946 rather than compromise with the communists.
1:16:59A Maurrassian Catholic who never called himself left-wing.

Cycle 9.1 · 3 Dec 2020#7 Answers to questions (continued)

25:32Mauriac presented as his companion.

Cycle 9.1 · 19 Nov 2020#5 Benefits and harms of amnesia…

1:32:02Those who thought themselves to the left of the left were to his right.

Talks · 4 Oct 2020Calves and Things: the preface

36:33Gaullism serves as a reference point for situating a false left.
37:49The Atlantic Alliance wanted to get rid of De Gaulle and the communists.

Cycle 8 · 21 Jun 2020#11 Return to the logics of the subject

1:05:54Gaullism, a force born from the Resistance, on the right.

Cycle 7 · 11 Apr 2020#4 Harnessed to confinitude

1:00:39To keep it out of power, the far right claimed to stand to the left of the Communist Party.

Cycle 7 · 4 Apr 2020#3 Harnessed to confinitude

18:36To be to the left of the Communist Party is to be to the right of De Gaulle, hence on the far right.

Cycle 6 · 30 Jan 2020#6.4 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

40:52The great statesman of the postwar era.

Cycle 6 · 3 Dec 2019#6.2 The logic of the subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

38:41Some former Jospinists are today to his right.

Talks · 29 Sept 2019The religion of money

1:23:48Opposed to Pétain: two Frances, the Resistance and collaboration.

Series · 23 Aug 2019M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (1987)

32:36Papon holds positions under his presidency.
1:37:00Example of the ambivalence of anti-Gaullism.

Cycle 5.2 · 26 May 2019#5.7 Nature or landscape?

1:38:05Opposed to Pétain.

Cycle 4 · 15 Jan 2018#4.4 Angélique (by Nerval)

16:55Used to say the French have their heads close to their caps.

Cycle 2 · 1 Aug 2017#2.8 Between crisis and war: philosophising?

32:17De Gaulle's France opposed to Pétain's: the question is which France.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.5 From Ulysses to Daedalus

1:42:44Like Chirac, a sense of the state.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.4 From Ulysses to Daedalus

1:00:23The other France, opposed to Pétain's.

Cycle 3 · 1 Aug 2017#3.6 From Ulysses to Daedalus

5:22Compared to Napoleon: he knows one cannot turn back.

Series · 2 Aug 2016With Clouscard

9:12Dominique Pagani says he voted against him his whole life; Gaullism dominates the postwar right.

Talks · 18 Jun 2016At the bistro (part 1)

23:04Clouscard reproaches leftists for being to the right of De Gaulle.

Talks · 8 Aug 2015Mythology and truth

25:09Mentioned in connection with contempt for the crowd.

Talks · 23 Jun 2015L'île du Peuple: the debate

11:14He claimed to be above parties.

Series · 25 Dec 2014K for Karl

8:06Pagani voted against him his whole life; Gaullists and Communists formed the government of the Resistance.

Series · 20 Sept 2014#2 Rousseau, a world that begins

40:01One of the possible Frances.

Series · 29 Jan 2012Everything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (2)

7:45One can be anti-Gaullist out of Pétainism: a word left vague can designate its opposite
23:53example reused for the two forms of anti-statism

Series · 29 Jan 2012Everything is allowed but nothing is possible: Michel Clouscard (1)

22:45Under de Gaulle, television broadcast more positive content than with hundreds of channels today.
44:48A participant: his authoritarian regime blocked the rise of the intellectual petty bourgeoisie.