France, 1958

[Kralizec]

For clarification, this is about the downfall of the 4th republic and the creation of the 5th under Charles de Gaulle as you may have guessed.

Any account I've seen or read about recent French history always seems to portray De Gaulle as some sort of deus ex machina, offering his services in order to avert a "real" coup d'etat by the military. My knowledge of this little history isn't exactly deep but I've always been sceptical and wondered if he had forehand knowledge of the plot and was a willing conspirator.

Care to enlighten me?

[Meneldil]

Well, given how worked the French army back then, it would be pretty normal to assume - like many french historians - that De Gaulle knew what was going to happen, despite his son's claims.

Given that he was quite a macchiavelian character, he might as well have organized the whole plot, but that would be harder to imagine.