Why were the policies of Gaulist France in the 1944 to 1946 period deemed to be a failure?

Answer 1

One of the main aims of De Gaulle was a) for France to be recognized as one of the major Allied powers and be allowed to sit in on the Allied conferences that would decide on post-war Europe and b) to re-establish France's pre-war ''glory" (read: status as a colonial power).

De Gaulle, however, significantly failed in getting the support for this from the USA, and in particular, his relationship with US President Roosevelt grew from bad to worse. He did not fare better in his relations with Roosevelt's successor Harry Truman, who was heard to say: "I don't like the son of a bitch" after French forces refused to hand over parts of occupied Germany and even came on the brink of fighting the US forces. Also relations with the British became very strained after De Gaulle's refusal to allow any British to participate in the French victory parades in 1945 and after trying to minimize any honors for Churchill and referring to him as "the old bandit'. Relations became even worse (with De Gaulle stating that he "unfortunately" was in no position te wage war on Britain) after Britain thwarted his efforts to forcibly re-establish France's pre-war power in the Middle East.

Although France ultimately got to govern a "French section" of Germany for a number of years, it never got the desired 'major Allied force' status it sought and was refused to participate in the conferences of Yalta and Potsdam. Also, the hoped-for 'gloire' as a colonial power only very partly materialized. The Gaulist government managed to turn its US and British allies and saviors into 'almost enemies' in the process. Within France itself, the Gaullist government never managed to come to grips with the sharing of power with its Parliament and with the Communist party that had become the biggest party in the land. It laid the foundation for what was to become known as the post-war Fourth Republic which would see enduring political instability and - partly because of its strained relations with the USA and Britain - further loss of its colonial power.