Reconstructing De Gaulle

Over two thousand books and articles make a very good point: Charles de Gaulle based his domestic and foreign policies on a fundamental, unchanging vision of France’s geopolitical position in the world. Andrew Moravcsik summarily dismisses this literature for its “tendency to engage in imaginative biographical reconstruction” and argues instead that “the overwhelming preponderance of direct evidence in the published public record about the motivations of de Gaulle and his closest associates with respect to the European Economic Community (EEC) confirms the primacy of commercial concerns.” Moravcsik provides a large amount of countervailing evidence to support his conclusions, which he declares to be “unambiguous” (Part 2, p. 54). Unfortunately, Moravcsik’s flawed methodology and misrepresentation of the evidence undermine his case. In analyzing Moravcsik’s article, my comments will first address the general questions of his methods and his depiction of de Gaulle. I will then take a closer look at each of Moravcsik’s cases and point to the evidence for alternative explanations of de Gaulle’s decisions and actions.