As early as 1959, French General De Gaulle suspected that the United States and Russia could one day reconcile and reach an agreement behind the backs of the Europeans to rule the world. At the time, it was considered political fiction.
In February 1945 - three months before the surrender of the Nazi Wehrmacht in Germany - American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Stalin met in Yalta at a trilateral conference. However, the leading figure of freedom-loving France - Charles De Gaulle, general and strategist - was not present there.
For the French general and strategist, the Yalta conference became a trauma: De Gaulle feared that the USA and Russia would divide the world - without France. French expert Maurice Weiss told the German public media ARD that such a scenario filled De Gaulle with fear and made him suspicious of the two superpowers.
French skepticism towards NATO
This attitude of General De Gaulle remained unchanged in the years after the end of World War II. In 1953, he left the front lines of politics and retired to the family estate in Colombey-Les-Deux-Églises. But although he was no longer prime minister or had any military duties, the "General", as he was fondly called in France, continued to interfere in politics vigorously. At a press conference in Paris in November 1953, he stated the following: "The United States proposed with the "Marshall" Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty an economic and military union, which, however, was more of a protectorate. How else can we call a system in which the general strategy, including the defense of France, is practically entirely subordinate to an American commander-in-chief?“.
Instead, General de Gaulle insisted on the economic and military independence of both France and Europe. In principle, he was not against the "Marshall" Plan and NATO, but at the same time he was well aware that in this way the United States was taking control of Europe as well. “De Gaulle wanted to preserve French sovereignty“, says French expert Frédéric Nou Dufour.
Fear of an alliance against Europe
After the constitutional crisis in France during the Algerian War in the late 1950s, which led to a military coup in Algeria, in 1959 de Gaulle became the first president of the Fifth Republic, which still exists today. The words he uttered on November 10, 1959, at the Élysée Palace in Paris, are strikingly relevant today: “Who can say whether the two powers that would have a monopoly on nuclear weapons will not one day agree to divide the world? [...] And who can say whether, in the conditions of future political and social upheavals, the former rivals will not become practically indistinguishable? The truth is that by acquiring nuclear weapons, France helps to balance the world's power.
De Gaulle's goal was to justify why France should also be a nuclear power. But at the height of the Cold War, the then 68-year-old French president drew up scenarios for international politics that had long been unthinkable: At the heart of them was the idea that the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, could unite against France and Europe and even become so close politically that they would threaten the existence of Europe.
Political science fiction turned into reality
According to historian Maurice Weiss, 66 years ago, de Gaulle predicted what now - in 2025 is now a reality: "Almost in the style of political science fiction, De Gaulle imagines that one day the two great powers will reconcile and come to an agreement behind the backs of the Europeans in order to rule the world".
Donald Trump's policy towards Russian President Vladimir Putin is implementing exactly the scenario envisaged by De Gaulle, Weiss also points out, quoted by ARD. Trump and Putin have repeatedly given the impression that they want to reach an agreement over the heads of the Europeans and the interests of Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia. A similar opinion is also expressed by Frederic No Dufour: "Recalling these words today is quite disturbing, because De Gaulle said them in 1959, at the height of the Cold War. And today, so many years later, we see that he was not wrong", the German public media also writes.