An astute LRC reader upon reading my earlier blog on Charles de Gaulle forwarded me a fascinating de Gaulle quote used by Lawrence Dennis on US “Hegemony” in his insightful book, Operational Thinking for Survival. Dennis quotes (on pages 91 and 92) the General’s memoirs but does not provide more specific citations as writing the following:

President Roosevelt’s conceptions appeared to me grandiose, as disquieting for Europe as for France. It was true that the isolationism of the United States was, according to the President, a great error now ended. But passing from one extreme to another, it was a permanent system of intervention which he intended to institute by international law. In his mind, a four-power directory – America, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, and China – would rule upon the problems of the universe. A parliament of the United Nations would give a democratic appearance to the power of the ‘Big Four.’ But, unless they delivered to the discretion of three of them the quasi-totality of the earth, such an organization, according to him, would have to involve the installation of American forces on bases in all the regions of the world, of which certain ones would be chosen on French territory.

Finally, Roosevelt counted on luring Stalin, into an ensemble which could contain his ambitions and where America will be able to muster good will. Among the ‘Four’, he knew that the China of Chiang Kai-shek needed his agreement, and that the British, sure to lose their Dominions, must bend themselves to his policy. As for the throng of medium-sized and small states, he would be in a position to act on them through foreign aid. Finally, the right of peoples to decide for themselves, the support offered by Washington, the existence of American bases were going to give birth in Africa, Asia and Australia to new sovereignties which would increase the number of states under obligation to the United States. In a similar perspective, questions proper to Europe, notably the fate of Germany, the destiny of the countries along the Vistula, Danube, the Balkans, the future of Italy seemed to him merely subordinate. In order to find a happy solution for them, he would assuredly not sacrifice the monumental conceptions of his dreams.

I listened to Roosevelt describe his projects to me. How human it was for the desires of power to clothe themselves in idealism.

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