Georges-Augustin Bidault (; 5 October 189927 January 1983) was a French politician. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was active in the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

. After the war, he served as foreign minister and premier on several occasions. He apparently joined the

Organisation armée secrète The ''Organisation armée secrète'' (OAS, "Secret Army Organisation") was a far-right dissident French paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War, founded in 1961 by Raoul Salan, Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques S ...

; however he always denied his involvement.

Early life

Bidault was born in Moulins, Allier. He studied in the Sorbonne and became a college history teacher. In 1932 he helped to found the Catholic Association of French Youth and the left-wing anti-fascist newspaper '' l'Aube''. He had a column in the paper and, among other things, protested against the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...

in 1938.

World War II

After the beginning of the Second World War he joined the French army. He was captured during the

Fall of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Net ...

and was imprisoned briefly. After his release in July 1941, he became a teacher at the Lycée du Parc in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and joined the ''Liberté'' group of

that eventually merged with the group ''Combat''. Jean Moulin recruited him to organize a covert press and the ''Combat'' covert newspaper. For his work in the resistance, he was helped by his private administrative assistant Laure Diebold. Bidault, inter alia along with other people well known, was imprisoned by the Spanish in an

Internment Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

camp at Miranda de Ebro. Bidault participated in the forming of the Conseil National de la Résistance and, after the Gestapo captured Moulin, he became its new president. In 1944 he formed a Resistance Charter that recommended an extensive post-war reform program. After the liberation of Paris he represented the Resistance in the victory parade.

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

appointed him as a foreign minister of his provisional government on 25 August. He was the initiator of the society

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Schuman, Paul Coste-Floret, Pierre-Henr ...

(MRP). He was chief of the French delegation to the San Francisco Conference, which established the UN, from April to June 1945. At the conference, France succeeded in gaining a permanent seat on the

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

Fourth Republic

On 4 January 1946, Bidault married Suzanne Borel, the first French woman to be employed as a diplomat. The same year he served as

foreign minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

in Félix Gouin's

provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, a transitional government or provisional leadership, is a temporary government formed to manage a period of transition, often following state collapse, revoluti ...

. On 19 June 1946, the National Constituent Assembly elected him as president of the provisional government. His government, formed on 15 June, was composed of socialists, communists and Bidault's own MRP. In social policy, Bidault's government was notable for passing important pension and workman's compensation laws. An act of 22 August 1946 extended coverage of family allowances to practically the entire population, while a law of October 1946 provided that insurance of occupation risks "would henceforth be mandatory and that such insurance would be granted by the Social Security that had been created in 1945." In August 1946, an Act was passed that made provision for two days' holiday a month up to a maximum of 24 working days for young persons between the ages of 14 and 18 and for one-and-a-half days' a month up to a maximum of 18 working days for those aged between 18 and 21. In addition, an Act was passed on 11 October 1946 that introduced occupational medical services. Bidault later became foreign minister once again. The government held elections for the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

on 29 November after which Bidault resigned. His successor was Léon Blum. Bidault served various French governments, first as foreign minister for

Paul Ramadier Paul Ramadier (17 March 1888 – 14 October 1961) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France in 1947. Biography The son of a psychiatrist, Ramadier graduated in law from the University of Toulouse and started his profess ...

and

Robert Schuman Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman (; 29 June 1886 – 4 September 1963) was a Luxembourg-born France, French statesman. Schuman was a Christian democrat, Christian democratic (Popular Republican Movement) political thinker and activist. ...

. In April 1947 he endorsed Ramadier's decision to expel the Communists from his government. Bidault had recently been to Moscow and was disturbed by the Soviet regime; he believed an agreement with Stalin was impossible. In 1948, weapons valued at 153 million francs were donated to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

by the French government, in accordance with a secret agreement approved by Bidault. Bidault's reasons for this are unclear, albeit he had been very concerned about the possibility of a Jordanian takeover of Jerusalem.Meir Zamir, "'Bid' for Altalena: France's covert action in the 1948 war in Palestine," ''Middle Eastern Studies'', vol 46 (2010) 17–58. Author's summar
here
Deputy Chief of Staff General Henri Coudraux, who was involved in the operation, told a 1949 inquiry that France had "reached a secret agreement with the Irgun, which promised it advantages if it were to come into power n Israel" A significant portion of the weapons and the ammunition were later destroyed in the Altalena Affair.Meir Zamir, "'Bid' for Altalena: France's covert action in the 1948 war in Palestine," ''Middle Eastern Studies'', vol 46 (2010) 17–58. Author's summar
here
In 1949 he became the President of the Council of Ministers (premier) but his government lasted only 8 months. During his last term as premier, a law of February 1950 that regulated collective bargaining, and included a guarantee of the right of workers to strike. The same law required the government to fix minimum wages for agriculture and for industry. In Henri Queuille's governments in 1950–1951 he had the office of

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a Minister (government), government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to th ...

and for

René Pleven René Jean Pleven (; 15 April 190113 January 1993) was a notable political figure of the French Resistance and Fourth Republic. An early associate of Jean Monnet then member of the Free French led by Charles de Gaulle, he took a leading role i ...

and Edgar Faure also the post of defense minister. In 1952 Bidault became honorary president of MRP. On 1 June 1953 President

Vincent Auriol Vincent Jules Auriol (; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1947 to 1954. Early life and politics Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Aurio ...

assigned him to form his own government but the National Assembly refused to give him the official mandate on 10 June. In 1953 Bidault became a presidential candidate but withdrew after the second round. Bidault was foreign minister during the siege of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu from March to May 1954. He protested to the Red Cross that the

Viet Minh The Việt Minh (, ) is the common and abbreviated name of the League for Independence of Vietnam ( or , ; ), which was a Communist Party of Vietnam, communist-led national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1 ...

were shooting at clearly marked French medical evacuation flights, killing some of the evacuees. The ongoing fighting in Indochina had exhausted him; he was described by American secretary of state

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat who served as United States secretary of state under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 until his resignation in 1959. A member of the ...

as "a deeply harassed man" and later by a historian as "on the verge of a nervous breakdown". Caught between his desires to end the war and to maintain French rule over its colonies, he vacillated between pressing the war, perhaps by asking the Americans for air support, or seeking a negotiated solution. Bidault stated that John Foster Dulles (then Secretary of State of United States) offered France two atomic bombs in 1954.

Fifth Republic

In April 1958 Bidault again became premier but did not form a cabinet and helped form the conservative society

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement (, KDH) is a Christian democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International ...

. He also endorsed De Gaulle's presidency after the beginning of the

Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. In 1961 Bidault became President of the Executive Council of the society Rally for French Algeria and opposed De Gaulle's policy of Algerian independence. He established his own National Resistance Council within the far-right paramilitary organization OAS (

). In June 1962 he was accused of conspiring against the state and deprived of his

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

. He left for exile in Brazil. In 1967 he relocated to Belgium and in 1968 returned to France after benefiting from an

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

. In his political memoirs, Bidault stated that he was never involved with the OAS, and was not qualified to give any precise information about its deeds.Bidault, Georges (1967) ''Resistance: The Political Autobiography of Georges Bidault''. F.A. Praeger. p. 245. When the Front national was founded in October 1972 by members of Ordre nouveau, he participated but resigned from the organisation a few days later. Bidault died of a stroke in

Cambo-les-Bains Cambo-les-Bains (; ) is a town in the traditional Northern Basque Country, Basque province of Labourd, now in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department in south-western France. It lies on the south-western bank of the river Nive ...

in January 1983.

Governments

First ministry (24 June – 16 December 1946)

*Georges Bidault – Chairman of the Provisional Government and Minister of Foreign Affairs *

Maurice Thorez Maurice Thorez (; 28 April 1900 – 11 July 1964) was a French politician and longtime leader of the French Communist Party (PCF) from 1930 until his death. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister of France from 1946 to 1947. Pre-war Thorez, ...

– Vice President of the Council * Félix Gouin – Vice President of the Council and Minister of National Defense * Charles Tillon – Minister of Armaments * Édouard Depreux – Minister of the Interior *

– Minister of Finance * François de Menthon – Minister of National Economy * Marcel Paul – Minister of Industrial Production * Ambroise Croizat – Minister of Labour and Social Security * Pierre-Henri Teitgen – Minister of Justice * Marcel Edmond Naegelen – Minister of National Education * François Tanguy-Prigent – Minister of Agriculture * Yves Farge – Minister of Supply * Marius Moutet – Minister of Overseas France * Jules Moch – Minister of Public Works and Transport * Robert Prigent – Minister of Population * François Billoux – Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning * Jean Letourneau – Minister of Posts * Alexandre Varenne – Minister of State * Francisque Gay – Minister of State

Second ministry (28 October 1949 – 7 February 1950)

*Georges Bidault – President of the Council * Jules Moch – Vice President of the Council and Minister of the Interior * Henri Queuille – Vice President of the Council *

– Minister of Foreign Affairs *

– Minister of National Defense * Maurice Petsche – Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs * Robert Lacoste – Minister of Commerce and Industry * Pierre Segelle – Minister of Labour and Social Security * René Mayer – Minister of Justice *

Yvon Delbos Yvon Delbos (7 May 1885 – 15 November 1956) was a French Radical-Socialist Party politician and minister. Biography Delbos was born in Thonac, Dordogne, and entered a career as a journalist, and became a member of the Radical-Socialist ...

– Minister of National Education * Louis Jacquinot – Minister of Veterans and War Victims * Pierre Pflimlin – Minister of Agriculture * Jean Letourneau – Minister of Overseas France *

Christian Pineau Christian Pineau (; 14 October 1904 – 5 April 1995) was a noted French Resistance fighter, who later served an important term as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1956 through 1958. Life and career Pineau was born in 1904 in Chaumont-en-Bass ...

– Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism * Pierre Schneiter – Minister of Public Health and Population * Eugène Claudius-Petit – Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning * Eugène Thomas – Minister of Posts * Pierre-Henri Teitgen – Minister of State Changes: *2 December 1949 – Gabriel Valay succeeds Pflimlin as Minister of Agriculture

Third Ministry (7 February – 2 July 1950)

*Georges Bidault – President of the Council * Henri Queuille – Vice President of the Council and Minister of the Interior *

– Minister of Foreign Affairs *

– Minister of National Defense * Maurice Petsche – Minister of Finance and Economics Affairs * Jean-Marie Louvel – Minister of Commerce and Industry * Paul Bacon – Minister of Labour and Social Security * René Mayer – Minister of Justice *

– Minister of National Education * Louis Jacquinot – Minister of Veterans and War Victims * Gabriel Valay – Minister of Agriculture * Jean Letourneau – Minister of Overseas France * Jacques Chastellain – Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism * Pierre Schneiter – Minister of Public Health and Population * Eugène Claudius-Petit – Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning * Charles Brune – Minister of Posts * Pierre-Henri Teitgen – Minister of State

References

Sources and further reading

* Bidault, Georges. ''Resistance: The Political Autobiography of Georges Bidault'' (Praeger, 1965
online
*

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bidault, Georges 1899 births 1983 deaths Politicians from Moulins, Allier French Christian Zionists French Roman Catholics Popular Democratic Party (France) politicians Popular Republican Movement politicians Heads of state of France 20th-century heads of state of France 20th-century princes of Andorra Prime ministers of France Deputy prime ministers of France Foreign ministers of France Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945) Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946) Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Members of Parliament for Loire Lycée Louis-le-Grand teachers French military personnel of World War I French Resistance members Members of the Organisation armée secrète Companions of the Liberation Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour Recipients of French presidential pardons People of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War