May 30, 1968: Charles de Gaulle Prevents the Next French Revolution
May 30, 1968: The inevitable fall of the government of France has come. But not in the way that was expected: Through an election, not a revolution.
In February, the French Communist Party and the French Section of the Workers' International formed an electoral alliance. Communists had long supported Socialist candidates in elections, but in the "February Declaration," the 2 parties agreed to attempt to form a joint government to replace President Charles de Gaulle and his Gaullist Party.
This was a bold move. de Gaulle had already been seen by the French public as having saved the country twice: Helping to liberate it from the Nazis in 1944, and settling the unrest that brought the Fourth Republic down in 1958, founding the Fifth Republic. The 6-foot-5 de Gaulle was, figuratively, the biggest man in the country. But he was 77 years old, and increasingly conservative. A lot of people thought it was time for a change, and he didn't seem ready to hand the Presidency over to his Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou.
The French left followed the example of America's left, and engaged university students, who were newly adult and had the most future ahead of them, and thus the most to lose with the status quo of their country and the world.
On March 22, far-left groups, a small number of prominent poets and musicians, and 150 students occupied an administration building at what is now named Paris Nanterre University, and held a meeting in the university council room about class discrimination in French society and the political bureaucracy that controlled the university's funding. The university's administration called the police, who surrounded the university. After the publication of their wishes, the students left the building without any trouble.
But conflicts between students and authorities at the Nanterre campus kept going, and the administration shut the university down on May 2. On May 6, the National Student Union of France (in French, UNEF), and the union of university teachers called a march to protest the police invasion of the Sorbonne. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched toward the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. Hundreds of students were arrested.
The government's heavy-handed reaction brought on a wave of sympathy for the strikers. Many of the nation's more mainstream singers and poets joined after the police brutality came to light. American artists also began voicing support of the strikers.
The major left union federations called a one-day general strike and demonstration for May 13. Well over a million people marched through Paris that day, and the police stayed largely out of sight. Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. However, the surge of strikes did not recede. Instead, the protesters became even more active.
By the middle of May, demonstrations extended to factories, though workers' demands significantly varied from students'. Up to 1/3rd of the country's workforce was on strike. On May 24, 2 people died at the hands of out-of-control rioters. In Lyon, Police Inspector Rene Lacroix died when he was crushed by a driverless truck rioters sent careering into police lines. In Paris, Phillipe Metherion, 26, was stabbed to death during an argument among demonstrators.
The Socialists saw an opportunity to act as a compromise between de Gaulle and the Communists. On May 28, Socialist Party Leader François Mitterand, who had been a Resistance fighter and a prisoner of war during World War II, and had won 45 percent of the vote in the last Presidential election, narrowly losing to de Gaulle, declared that "there is no more state," and said he was ready to form a new government.
On the morning of May 29, de Gaulle postponed the meeting of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to a U.S. President's Cabinet) scheduled for that day, and secretly removed his personal papers from the Élysée Palace, the official Presidential residence. He told his son-in-law, retired General Alain de Boissieu, "I do not want to give them a chance to attack the Élysée. It would be regrettable if blood were shed in my personal defense. I have decided to leave. Nobody attacks an empty palace."
de Gaulle refused Pompidou's request that he dissolve the National Assembly, as he believed that their party, the Gaullists, would lose the resulting election. At 11:00 AM, he told Pompidou, "I am the past. You are the future. I embrace you."
Georges Pompidou
That was a very un-de Gaulle-like thing to do, unless he had a plan. He did: He went to the headquarters of the French Forces in West Germany, in Baden-Baden, to meet their commander, General Jacques Massu, whom had been a brutal commander during the Algerian War. Massu told de Gaulle exactly what he wanted to hear: The French military, as conservative as ever, would support him against the demonstrators if he wished to remain in power. Massu kept this meeting a secret until 1982.
Jacques Massu
de Gaulle announced that the Council meeting had been rescheduled for the next day, and was back in Colombey by 6:00 PM. The people of France began to realize what they had, once they realized that de Gaulle had been missing but had come back to them one more time. A survey conducted immediately after the crisis found that 20 percent of Frenchmen would have supported a revolution, but a majority of the country would have avoided any action.
On May 30, 500,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Paris, chanting, "Adieu, de Gaulle!" Based on the events of the previous day, they thought they were about to win. But the police and the Army were out, protecting public buildings. There was a lot of noise, but no takeovers.
At 2:30 PM, de Gaulle met with Pompidou and the Council. At 4:30, he broadcast his refusal to resign. He announced an election, scheduled for June 23, and ordered workers to return to work, threatening to institute a state of emergency if they did not. The leftist demonstration had broken up, and, immediately after the speech, an even larger crowd, about 800,000, marched through the Champs-Élysées waving the French Tricolor flag. Mitterand talked the leftist parties into accepting the election, and the threat of revolution was over.
Workers gradually returned to work. The national student union called off street demonstrations. The Gaullists won the greatest victory in French parliamentary history, taking 353 of 486 seats, to the Communists' 34 and the Socialists' 57.
de Gaulle could have named his new government the Sixth Republic, but chose to keep the Fifth Republic name, to make it sound like a calm continuation -- which, in the end, it was. The Fifth Republic name holds to this day.
But it was not a personal triumph. A post-crisis survey conducted by Mattei Dogan showed that 70 percent of the country saw de Gaulle as "too sure of himself," 59 percent saw him as "too old to govern," 64 percent saw him as "too authoritarian," 69 percent saw him as "too concerned with his personal prestige," and 63 percent saw him as "too conservative." Essentially, the country was ready for "Gaullism without de Gaulle."
de Gaulle finally retired in 1969, handing the Presidency over to Pompidou, and died in 1970. Pompidou had a relatively peaceful tenure, but died in office in 1974. (Some "future" he turned out to be.) He remains the only French head of state to die in office since 1932.
He was replaced by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In the subsequent election, Giscard defeated Mitterand. In 1981, Mitterand reversed that result, and became the 1st left-wing President under the Fifth Republic. He served 2 terms, until 1995. Like de Gaulle, he died a year after leaving office.
A nation of many revolutions over the last 250 years, most notably the one of 1789-1794, France has had political unrest since, but has never again come as close to revolution as the failed one of 1968.
Massu, the man who really saved France the 3rd time de Gaulle saved it, died in 2002.
UPDATE: Philippe de Gaulle, Charles' son, an Admiral and a Senator for Paris from 1986 to 2004, died in 2024, at the age of 102.
*
May 30, 1968 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won the opener, 13-4. Stan Bahnsen was the winning pitcher. Mickey Mantle had perhaps his last big day at the plate, going 5-for-5 with 2 home runs (the 523rd and 524th of his career) and 5 RBIs.
The Senators won the nightcap, 6-2. Camilo Pascual, who pitched for the "old" Senators and, after their move, the Minnesota Twins, won this game for the "new" Senators, outpitching Fred Talbot, Jim Bouton, Fritz Peterson and, as Bouton called him, the Dooley Womack. Roy White hit a home run for the Yankees.
* The New York Mets swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 and 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In the 1st game, Jerry Koosman outpitched Jim Bunning. In the 2nd game, Dick Selma outpitched Bob Veale. Over the 2 games, Roberto Clemente went 2-for-8 with an RBI.
* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-0 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Mike Cuellar pitched a 7-hit shutout. Hank Aaron got 1 of those hits, but it was a single, not a home run.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-5. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dave Leonhard pitched a 2-hit shutout. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a bases-loaded walk. Frank Robinson did not play.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, while Rod Carew went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Steve Carlton allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Willie Mays got 1 of those hits. Willie McCovey did not, as he did not play.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 7-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Al Kaline was injured, and did not play.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Sal Bando hit a home run. Rookie Reggie Jackson did not play. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4.
* And the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies were rained out at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 13. The Phillies won the 1st game, 3-1. The Cubs won the 2nd game, 9-1. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 3-for-7 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.
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