Put Up or Shut Up

De Gaulle’s theory and practice of international politics (“Grand Strategy” is the appropriate term in his case) are based on the following conceptions: 1) the primary counters of the game are nations with deeply ingrained traits that change very slowly, if at all; 2) as a corollary, “ideologies” (Communism, fascism, Liberalism, etc.) are secondary and superficial; 3) the rules of the game are Machiavellian: significant moves express changing relations of power and interest, not ideological or moralistic abstractions about “justice,” “freedom,” “peace” or what not; 4) the French nation embodies more fully than any and all others the meaning of Western, Christian civilization; 5) de Gaulle is the concentrated embodiment of France, so that France, therefore the West, speaks most authentically by his voice; 6) on fundamental issues, de Gaulle’s decision is correct—or at any rate, since defeat is possible and the end may be tragic, the best the circumstances permit.

De Gaulle, almost alone among contemporary Western statesmen, does habitually think in terms of the highest level of Grand Strategic ideas. Though he can be shrewd about techniques and practical details, his mind never bogs down in such day-to-day adjustments and compromises as preoccupy our new President. De Gaulle sees not so much the forest as the entire terrain of which even the forest is only one feature; the continental waves, the alternations in the ultimate lines of force that control the slow shift in the global equilibrium.

JB

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James Burnham

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De Gaulle’s theory and practice of international politics (“Grand Strategy” is the appropriate term in his case) are based on the following conceptions: 1) the primary counters of the game are nations with deeply ingrained traits that change very slowly, if at all; 2) as a corollary, “ideologies” (Communism, fascism, Liberalism, etc.) are secondary and superficial; 3) the rules of the game are Machiavellian: significant moves express changing relations of power and interest, not ideological or moralistic abstractions about “justice,” “freedom,” “peace” or what not; 4) the French nation embodies more fully than any and all others the meaning of Western, Christian civilization; 5) de Gaulle is the concentrated embodiment of France, so that France, therefore the West, speaks most authentically by his voice; 6) on fundamental issues, de Gaulle’s decision is correct—or at any rate, since defeat is possible and the end may be tragic, the best the circumstances permit.

De Gaulle, almost alone among contemporary Western statesmen, does habitually think in terms of the highest level of Grand Strategic ideas. Though he can be shrewd about techniques and practical details, his mind never bogs down in such day-to-day adjustments and compromises as preoccupy our new President. De Gaulle sees not so much the forest as the entire terrain of which even the forest is only one feature; the continental waves, the alternations in the ultimate lines of force that control the slow shift in the global equilibrium.