![]() “The least that can be said on this subject,” the General declared, “is that in Asia, where the frontier between two states, from the Hindu Kush to Vladivostok, is the longest in the world, the interest of Russia, which conserves and maintains, and that of China, which needs to grow and take, cannot be confused.” He then made a plea for an “eventual neutrality agreement concerning the states of Southeast Asia to which, for so many reasons, we French attach a special and cordial attention.” the most numerous of the earth,” to a “stale which is older than history.” He discussed the immense effort made lay the Communists to exploit China’s natural resources before he reached the heart of the matter, long one of his pet themes: the inevitable conflict between Russian and Chinese national interests. the thousand or so listeners who had crowded into the ballroom of the Elysée Palace were nodding with drowsiness from the combined effect of the wine they had drunk at lunch and the heat given off by massed batteries of television cameras.ĭe Gaulle continued with a few historical allusions to a “great people. Subsequent references to President Lopez Mateos of Mexico, to the governments of the Latin-American states which De Gaulle is to visit next autumn, and finally to “our friend Prince Sihanouk, the Chief of State of Cambodia, his Majesty the King of Laos and his Prime Minister, Prince Souvanna Phouma” - all due to be received in Paris in the near future - made it quite clear where French aid could go.īy the time this lengthy explanation was completed. These glowing statistics were tempered by a thinly veiled warning to African recipients that if they went on dissipating this aid in petty internecine quarrels, France would divert it elsewhere. The General pointed with pride to the fact that 2 percent of France’s national income and 10 percent of its annual investment are devoted to foreign aid. ![]() This was followed by an elaborate apologia in favor of massive aid to underdeveloped countries. It began with a lengthy disquisition on the institutions of the Fifth Republic, in the course of which De Gaulle insisted on the absolute need for autocratic rule in France, even going so far as to scoff at the idea of France’s becoming a dyarchy, or bicephalous state, in which the Prime Minister might be something more than the first valet of the President. Yet within a couple of weeks all of them had quietly evaporated, and the way was open for De Gaulle to unveil his latest Grand Design at a press conference he gave in the Elysee Palace on January 31, which attracted an unprecedented number of auditors. ![]() Similar assurances were conveyed through the ordinary diplomatic channels to both Washington and London. To get Peshkov to undertake this task must have required some persuasion, for he is a bitter anti-Communist who has little use for De Gaulle’s present policies. To make this clear, De Gaulle dispatched General Zinovi Peshkov (Maxim Gorky’s adopted son), who had served him as Free French envoy to Chungking, to reassure his old friend Chiang Kai-shek. In any case, there was no question of France’s renouncing the Two Chinas policy or of breaking with Taiwan. Full recognition might come in a year or two, but progress was likely to be slow. A few weeks later, after the Assembly had recessed, the Gaullist propaganda machine got into action, intimating that all De Gaulle envisaged was the establishment of diplomatic and cultural relations up to the charge d’affaires level, where British recognition has remained stymied for the last dozen years. The third, and not the least important, is the reaffirmation of the old principle of the divine right of kings to rule as they please, regardless of what people, parliament, or even allies might wish.īy last November - after a French trade mission and former Premier Edgar Faure, De Gaulle’s special emissary, had returned from China - the operation was too obvious to be camouflaged any longer. The second is the extreme to which he is prepared to go in the attainment of his goals. The first is the General’s supreme indifference to questions of political doctrine. CHARLES DE GAULLE’S recognition of Red China offered a new and striking demonstration of at least three familiar traits in the Gaullist regime.
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