Have the French forgotten de Gaulle’s personality?

OPINION:

Recent conversations with my French friends and acquaintances revealed that most of them appear to suffer from a severe case of Trump derangement syndrome. Their criticisms ranged from policy to personality, and there seemed to be few attributes they found laudable about the American president.

In response, I sought to remind my French friends that there was a time when Americans had a rather similar perspective on a French president, namely Charles de Gaulle.

The suggestion that Mr. Trump and de Gaulle could possibly have anything in common elicited shock and disbelief. Yet a dispassionate analysis of the men and their comportment may serve to remind us that our indignation and disdain very much depend on our vantage point.

Today, to many French people, de Gaulle remains a hero. Streets and monuments bearing his name abound. His complex and often abrasive personality has been mostly forgotten. However, to Americans who often had to withstand the force of his disdain, de Gaulle remains a jarring, even obnoxious, figure of a turbulent past.

De Gaulle came to believe that he was the incarnation of France. When the country suffered its ignominious defeat at the hands of the Nazis, de Gaulle — without specific authority but merely by reason of his sense of destiny — declared that he was the legitimate leader of France.

It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that, in the face of France’s greatest debacle, de Gaulle, to his credit, sought to make France great again.

His attempt to restore the tarnished glory of France was largely an exercise in personal public relations. He used many of the same tools Mr. Trump would use decades later. He sought to engage audiences with elaborate speechmaking. He relied on symbols, most prominently the Cross of Lorraine, which rapidly became the emblem of resistance to the Nazis.

He spoke his mind, frequently in the most undiplomatic manner, oblivious to the offense that others might take.

After the Allied victory over Germany, de Gaulle actively engaged in politics, but it was clear he believed he was above the petty gamesmanship politics required. He was stubborn, arrogant and uncompromising. His view that France was superior in all things was nothing short of an obsession he sought to foist upon the rest of the world.

Americans (who, after all, contributed mightily to the liberation of France) did not take kindly to the tall, odd-looking Frenchman who seemed to disdain the saviors of his beloved France. At every opportunity, de Gaulle sought to diminish the importance of anyone who might challenge his assertion that France was the greatest civilization.

To many Americans, de Gaulle was an ungrateful and profoundly disliked figure.

Even to the French people, de Gaulle was a challenging and often divisive personality. In 1946, barely two years after he had become France’s leader, in the midst of a political crisis, he slammed the door and went home in a fit of pique. A dozen years later, he made a remarkable comeback, bringing the Fourth Republic to an end and installing a new form of government more suited to his autocratic personality.

In the years to come, de Gaulle would annoy much of the world with a variety of odd policies, many contrary to convention. To the dismay of many of his compatriots, he granted Algeria independence, resulting in extensive civil strife in France. He unceremoniously took France out of the military arm of NATO and began to alter many of France’s diplomatic relationships. Much of his international comportment was deemed offensive to the United States, but de Gaulle was indifferent.

In 1968, civil strife in France was so severe that de Gaulle considered using the French army against his own people. He ultimately desisted but demonstrated that he was not above considering the use of force to retain power. By the following year, an electoral loss bruised his ego so badly that he simply walked out of the Elysee Palace in a huff, never to return.

In its time, de Gaulle’s pompous and arrogant behavior seemed very disruptive, not so different from the manner in which the French view Mr. Trump’s comportment today.

Ultimately, the qualities of another nation’s leader are difficult to consider with any objectivity. The French hold Charles de Gaulle in esteem for his accomplishments, many of which were crucial to France’s very survival, and they have chosen for good reason to cast aside his failings.

In giving consideration to the man Americans have now twice selected as our leader, the French may want to withhold their negative judgment, just as they seem willing to disregard the abrasive elements of de Gaulle’s personality and policies.

It might be appropriate for the people of France to put aside their visceral hatred and consider that, despite his complicated personality, on balance, President Trump might be a good president for the United States, just as Charles de Gaulle may have been a good president for France.

• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.