Did De Gaulle really say "I am France" (Je suis la France)?
score:4
Yes, or something like it. Most accounts have him saying it to Halifax in 1940, though he possibly repeated it on other occasions. It is sometimes reported that he said "J'assume la France" rather than "Je suis la France". In either case, the expression signified his intention to assume responsibility for France.
Many of the smaller countries overrun by the nazis had properly constituted governments-in-exile in London. In some cases the monarch himself (or herself) had also fled to London. For nationals of these countries (those who wanted to fight on at least) the issue of legitimacy did not arise. The legal government continued to function, albeit from London.
None of this applied to De Gaulle's initially tiny organisation. For most people in 1940, the legal government of France was that of Petain, based in Vichy.
De Gaulle had no monarch, virtually no armed forces, no access to funds (beyond what the British allowed him) and no territory. For his project to succeed he had to create and encourage the idea that a legitimate French state existed beyond Vichy. He could only do so by projecting his personality and by acting - even from the tiniest beginnings - the role of the world statesman.
More post
- 📝 Why were the Franks so successful in projecting power?
- 📝 Were bricks instead of bombs occasionally thrown out of war planes in WWI?
- 📝 Are there any written records of Norse mythology dated prior to Christianization?
- 📝 Why does the Uruk King List say Antiochus I Soter ruled for 22 years?
- 📝 Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?
- 📝 Has the American Civil War led to any significant innovations in 19th-century warfare?
- 📝 Which is the earliest surviving inscription of "SPQR"?
- 📝 Did the Incas think Spanish helmets were cooking pots?
- 📝 Was Hitler exclaiming "Heil Hitler!" himself when saluting?
- 📝 What have been the advantages/disadvantages of NOAA and the USPHS having uniformed services?
- 📝 What made California Indian baskets so good?
- 📝 Did Greek traders visit the Philippines in the 1st century AD?
- 📝 Why is the United States the only developed country whose labour laws leave most up to the employer?
- 📝 Who invented psychological pricing?
- 📝 Was Islam really responsible for the Italian Renaissance?
- 📝 Argentina's involvement with the League of Nations
- 📝 Why is Thailand considered an Axis power in WWII?
- 📝 How was the Spanish Armada coordinated?
- 📝 Aryanization in Nazi Germany. What did it mean in reality?
- 📝 Who were some of the specific people in the Renaissance who wrote about their period being different from the Middle Ages?
- 📝 Why were the drawings of Colossus burnt after WW2 and why was its very existence "of course" kept secret?
- 📝 What were the largest newspapers in mid-1800s California?
- 📝 What were the names of the spy rings besides Culper during the Revolutionary War?
- 📝 What was the first college in an English-speaking country to use Latin in their motto?
- 📝 Where in a city would a cathedral be built?
- 📝 Stories from history of mercenaries who didn't get paid
- 📝 Regional Customs for Leaving a King's Presence
- 📝 Who were the highest-ranking officers of each belligerent nation, who parachuted with troops in Operation Market Garden?
- 📝 Did the Germans have a team equivalent to the one from Bletchey Park in the UK during WWII?
- 📝 What happened to Mao Zedong's first wife?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did De Gaulle really say "I am France" (Je suis la France)?
- 📝 Did Joseph Goebbels really say this about German opposition in 1933?
- 📝 What did English people really say when knighting someone?
- 📝 Did Jefferson really say this quote about patriotism?
- 📝 Did JFK really say "Hitler is one of the greatest men…one of the most significant figures that ever lived"?
- 📝 Did Goebbels really say "Truth is the enemy of the state"? If so, when?
- 📝 Did Einstein really say this quote about time?
- 📝 Did the Chief of Soviet General Staff really say this?
- 📝 Did Cao Cao really say the greatest traitor resembled an honest man?
- 📝 Why did Mussolini say that people are not really free if they don't have access to the ocean?
- 📝 Did Jaques Chirac say “Without Africa, France will slide down into the rank of a third [rate] power”?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Did Albert Einstein really receive this rejection letter from the University of Bern?
- 📝 Did active frontiersmen really eat 20,000 calories a day? How does this compare to other highly-active people in recorded history?
- 📝 Did Rothschild say this famous quote? If yes, what did he mean by it?
- 📝 WW2: Did US marines and soldiers really go into action with unbuckled helmet chin straps?
- 📝 Did pirates really drink a lot of rum?
- 📝 Did Louis XIV actually say "The State? I am the State."? Could he have said it?
- 📝 Why did really old paintings use such bizarre, unnatural perspective/proportions?
- 📝 Did the Celts really go into battle naked?
- 📝 Did Catherine the Great really call for the abolition of serfdom?
- 📝 Did Hitler really support Subhash Chandra Bose's cause and did he do anything to help Bose?
- 📝 What did Zhang Zuolin say after his train blew up?
- 📝 Did President Kennedy really cut 100,000 government jobs during his presidency?
- 📝 Did the US and Soviet navies really come close to blows in the Indian Ocean in 1971?
- 📝 Why did Allied invasion of France occur only in 1944 and not earlier?
- 📝 What did other European powers say when Portugal and Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas?
- 📝 Did any leader say "We may have lost the battle, but not the war"?
- 📝 Did Truman really believe that Hiroshima was a military base?
- 📝 When did Warren Harding say "I am not fit to be president." Why?
