The Wilderness Begins
From Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, de Gaulle watched France struggle with mordant satisfaction. The Fourth Republic, finally established in October 1946 after his constitutional vision was rejected, embodied everything he despised: weak executive, omnipotent parliament, government by party combination. "France is going badly," he told visitors, "but not badly enough."
The Hermit of Colombey
De Gaulle's life in retirement was austere, almost monastic. He rose early, wrote for hours, took long walks in the forests around Colombey. He refused all business offers, living on his modest general's pension. Yvonne managed the household with her usual quiet efficiency, creating a haven where the great man could nurse his grievances and await his moment.
But this was no passive retirement. De Gaulle wrote furiously—memoirs that were also manifestos, speeches that were political philosophy, letters that maintained networks of support. His war memoirs, published between 1954 and 1959, were bestsellers that reminded France of his role as savior and prophet.
Visitors found a man oscillating between serenity and bitterness. He could discourse brilliantly on history, literature, and philosophy. But mention current politics and the tone turned acid. The "regime of parties" was betraying France, abandoning its grandeur, accepting subordination to the Anglo-Saxons. Only catastrophe could save France from mediocrity.
The RPF: Political Interlude
By 1947, de Gaulle's patience exhausted. Communist strikes paralyzed France, governments fell monthly, the Cold War threatened to make France a battlefield. On April 7, he launched the Rally of the French People (RPF), calling for constitutional revision and national renewal.
The response was electric. Within months, the RPF claimed a million members. In municipal elections, Gaullist candidates won spectacular victories. De Gaulle resumed public appearances, drawing enormous crowds. In Paris, 100,000 people filled the Vincennes velodrome to hear him denounce the "separatists" (communists) and "abandoners" (the governing parties).
But success brought problems. The RPF was not a normal party—de Gaulle insisted it was a "rally" above parties. Its members ranged from former resisters to ex-Vichyites, united only by devotion to the General. Its program was vague beyond constitutional revision and anti-communism. Most problematically, de Gaulle refused to let RPF deputies bring down governments, fearing chaos would benefit communists more than Gaullists.
This contradiction proved fatal. RPF deputies, elected to end the Fourth Republic, found themselves propping it up. Ambitious politicians, initially attracted by Gaullism, defected when career opportunities beckoned. By 1953, the movement was disintegrating. De Gaulle, disgusted by his followers' betrayals, dissolved the RPF and returned to Colombey.
Writing History, Making History
The 1950s found de Gaulle in deeper withdrawal but intense intellectual activity. His war memoirs were more than personal history—they were his vision of France, leadership, and destiny. Written in classical prose of austere beauty, they transformed recent events into eternal truths.
The famous opening—"All my life I have had a certain idea of France"—became the most quoted sentence in French political literature. The memoirs portrayed the Free France epic as inevitable, guided by de Gaulle's prescient vision. Failures were minimized, opponents caricatured, complexities simplified. But the mythmaking was so skillful that even critics were swept along.
De Gaulle also used this period to think deeply about the modern world. He studied nuclear weapons, European integration, decolonization, television—all the forces reshaping politics. Unlike many his age, he embraced change, seeing it as opportunity rather than threat. "One must be of one's time," he told associates, even while defending eternal values.
His reading was voracious and eclectic. Philosophy, history, poetry, even detective novels (he particularly enjoyed Simenon). He corresponded with intellectuals like André Malraux, finding in the author of Man's Fate a kindred spirit who understood the tragic dimension of political action. These years of reflection prepared him intellectually for the challenges ahead.
Waiting for the Call
As the Fourth Republic stumbled from crisis to crisis, de Gaulle waited with growing confidence that France would call him back. The Indochina disaster, culminating in Dien Bien Phu, vindicated his warnings about colonial war. The Suez fiasco of 1956 confirmed his predictions about France's international humiliation. Most ominously, the Algerian conflict, beginning in 1954, threatened to tear France apart.
His attitude toward these crises was complex. Publicly, he maintained olympian detachment, refusing to comment on current events. Privately, he seethed at each new humiliation, each confirmation of the regime's inadequacy. He wanted France to suffer enough to demand fundamental change, but not so much as to collapse entirely.
Visitors in these years found a man suspended between past and future. He could reminisce brilliantly about the war years, analyze contemporary problems with penetrating insight, prophesy future developments with remarkable accuracy. But always the conversation returned to his central theme: France needed leadership, institutions worthy of its greatness, a state capable of action.
By 1958, even his enemies admitted the Fourth Republic was dying. Twenty-four governments in twelve years, military defeat in Indochina, humiliation at Suez, and now Algeria threatening civil war. The very politicians who had rejected de Gaulle in 1946 began to wonder if only he could save France from itself.
De Gaulle, now 67, waited at Colombey with the patience of a man certain of his destiny. He had been right about everything—the need for strong institutions, the danger of party government, the importance of national independence. Soon France would recognize what he had always known: that Charles de Gaulle and French greatness were inseparable. The wilderness was ending; the second coming approached.# Part 4: Return to Power (1958-1969)