Harvard Scholars Assess Impact of de Gaulle Death

European scholars at Harvard expressed a sense of loss over the death of General Charles de Gaulle, former President of France, but said that his death would have little impact on French polities.

"I feel devastated, emotionally devastated," Laurence Wylie, Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France, said yesterday. "Even if you're an enemy of de Gaulle's you have to feel that he is perhaps one of the greatest men of the 20th century."

De Gaulle, the hero of the French underground during World War II and President of France for more than half of the 26 years since France's liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, died Tuesday in the small village of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises, 160 miles southeast of Paris. He was 79 years old.

Plus Ca Change

"I don't think his death means anything as far as the political situation in France goes," Wylie said.

"De Gaulle had a certain idea of what France should be," Wylie continued. "He felt that France could not be France without grandeur. To de Gaulle, France had to be absolutely independent and alone. It couldn't be just a part of NATO; just another country in Europe."

Wylie speculated that the Gaullist Party, founded by de Gaulle, would continue in power in France. "That's not so much because of the strength of the Gaullists but because the left is so badly divided," he said.

As to Franco-American relations, Wylie said that de Gaulle's death would make no difference whatsoever. "The writers of editorials in American newspapers will find the outlook bleak because they don't have de Gaulle as a whipping boy anymore," he said, "but his death will make no difference in international polities."

La Meme Chose

David S. Landes, professor of History and acting director of West European Studies, agreed with Wylie's assessment of the impact of de Gaulle's death.

"I don't think it will change anything," Landes said. "If it had happened three or four years ago, there would have been an enormous change. But de Gaulle has not exercised influence over the policies of the current government."

"I am surprised at my own feeling of loss," Franklin L. Ford, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History, said yesterday. "I didn't agree with a lot of the specific things he did, but I feel that he was the last of the old-time leaders."

Ford said that whatever influence de Gaulle had on current French policies had already taken effect. "The elections in 1969 installed Pompidou and the Gaullists," said Ford, "and since they could pull such a large vote without any glamorous leaders, they probably have considerable strength. They will be around for a long time."

Second Time Around

"De Gaulle earned a place in French history by getting the French out of Algeria in 1958. It was the greatest achievement of his second incarnation," Ford added.

"If he could have come back a third time, his death would have been meaningful politically," Charles S. Maier, assistant professor of History, said yesterday. "But he was no longer waiting in the wings to return."

Maier said that de Gaulle's death would have little effect on the Gaullist Party. "The Gaullist Party had changed from a group either oriented around de Gaulle-into a work-a-day political organization held together by the rewards of power."

"De Gaulle died politically in May 1968," Maier concluded. "He had to buy back the labor unions from the students, and the wage increases needed to do that undermined his policy of staying economically independent of the United States."

Inge S. Hoffmann, Scholar of the Radcliffe Institute and co-author of "De Gaulle as a Political Artist" (Daedalus, Summer 1968), disagreed with the other professors' assessment of the impact of de Gaulle's death.

"The immediate impact of his death is to unite a divided French people," she said. "All parties in France, including the Communists, are united now in their sense of mourning and national gratitude.

"Napoleon said that he left France smaller than he took her," Hoffmann added. "De Gaulle certainly left it larger than it was."