for eight months from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the Radical Party, he headed a government supported by a coalition of Gaullists ( RPF), moderate socialists ( UDSR), Christian democrats ( MRP) and liberal-conservatives ( CNIP). Pierre-Mendès France is primarily remembered as the French Prime Minister who was in office at the outbreak of the Algerian independence war in 1954. During his tenure, France initiated close military cooperation with
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 ...
, selling arms and aircraft to the young state. Mendès-France laid the groundwork for France’s military nuclear program and the early transfer of nuclear technology to Israel.
Early life
Mendès France was born on 11 January 1907 in Paris, the son of a textile merchant from
Limoges
Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...
. He was descended from
Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the fe ...
Faculty of Law of Paris
The Faculty of Law of Paris (), called from the late 1950s to 1970 the Faculty of Law and Economics of Paris, is the second-oldest faculty of law in the world and one of the four and eventually five faculties of the University of Paris ("the S ...
, graduating with a doctorate in law and becoming the youngest member of the Paris
bar association
A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence.
in 1926, at age 19. In 1924, Mendès France joined the Radical Party, the traditional party of the French middle-class centre-left (not to be confused with the mainstream
SFIO
The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...
, often called the Socialist Party). He married Lili Cicurel, the niece of Salvator Cicurel.
Third Republic and World War II
In 1932, Mendès France was elected member of the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
for the
Eure
Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.1936
Events January–February
* January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House.
* January 28 – Death and state funer ...
Casablanca
Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...
in Morocco to continue the fight against the Nazis. He was imprisoned for desertion. He escaped and succeeded in reaching Britain, where he joined the
. Mendès France later described his trial, conviction and subsequent escape in the celebrated documentary "'' The Sorrow and the Pity''".
During the latter years of the war, Mendès France served in the
Free French Air Forces
The Free French Air Forces (, FAFL) were the air arm of the Free French Forces in the Second World War, created by Charles de Gaulle in 1940. The designation ceased to exist in 1943 when the Free French Forces merged with General Giraud's force ...
laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( , from , ) is a type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies or regulations). As a system of thought, ''laissez-faire'' ...
'' policies. When de Gaulle sided with Pleven, Mendès France resigned. Nonetheless, de Gaulle valued Mendès France's abilities, and appointed him as a director of the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States; it is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers lo ...
, and as French representative to the
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to the fifteen specialized ...
.
Fourth Republic
In 1947, after democratic French politics resumed under the Fourth Republic, Mendès France was re-elected to the National Assembly. He first tried to form a government in June 1953, but was unable to gain the numbers in the Assembly. From 1950 he had been a consistent opponent of French colonialism, and by 1954 France was becoming hopelessly embroiled in major colonial conflicts: the
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam, and alternatively internationally as the French-Indochina War) was fought between French Fourth Republic, France and Việ ...
and 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 ...
. When French forces were defeated by the
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
ese Communists at Dien Bien Phu in June 1954, the government of Joseph Laniel resigned, and Mendès France formed a government with support from the centre-right.
Mendès France immediately negotiated an agreement with
Ho Chi Minh
(born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...
, the Vietnamese Communist leader. There was, he said, no choice but total withdrawal from
Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...
, and the Assembly supported him by 471 votes to 14. Nevertheless, nationalist opinion was shocked, and Roman Catholic opinion opposed abandoning the Vietnamese believers to Communism. A tirade of abuse, much of it
anti-Semitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, was directed at Mendès France.
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (20 June 1928 – 7 January 2025), commonly known as Jean-Marie Le Pen (), was a French politician, lawyer and activist. He founded the far-right National Front (now National Rally) party and served as the party's presi ...
, then a Poujadist member of the Assembly, described his "patriotic, almost physical repulsion" for Mendès France.
At the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence in 1954, Pierre Mendès France firmly reaffirmed that Algeria was an integral part of France and rejected any notion of negotiation with nationalist movements. He declared to the French parliament : ''"There can be no compromise when it comes to defending the internal peace of the nation, its unity, and the integrity of the Republic. The departments of Algeria are an integral part of the French Republic .. The idea of secession is unthinkable".''
Later, Mendès France next came to an agreement with
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba (3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian politician and statesman who served as the Head of Government of Tunisia, prime minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia from 1956 to 1957, and then as the first president of Tunisia from 1 ...
, the nationalist leader in
Tunisia
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
, for the independence of that colony by 1956, and began discussions with the nationalist leaders in
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
for a French withdrawal. He also favoured concessions to the nationalists in
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
; but the presence of a million ''
Pied-noir
The (; ; : ) are an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed for mainland France during and after the ...
s'' there left the colonial power no easy way to extricate itself from that situation. The future
mercenary
A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...
Bob Denard was convicted in 1954 and sentenced to fourteen months in prison for an assassination attempt against Mendès France.Obituary: Bob Denard ,
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, 14 October 2007
Mendès France hoped that the Radical Party would become the party of modernization and renewal in French politics, replacing the SFIO. An advocate of greater
European integration
European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...
, he helped bring about the formation of the
Western European Union
The Western European Union (WEU; , UEO; , WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (alliance) , Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implement ...
, and proposed far-reaching economic reform. He also favoured defence co-operation with other European countries, but the National Assembly rejected the proposal for a European Defence Community, mainly because of misgivings about Germany's participation.
His cabinet fell in February 1955. In 1956 he served as Minister of State in the cabinet headed by the SFIO leader Guy Mollet, but resigned over Mollet's handling of the Algerian War, which was coming to dominate French politics. His split over Algeria with Edgar Faure, leader of the conservative wing of the Radical Party, led to Mendès France resigning as party leader in 1957.
Fifth Republic
Like most of the French left, Mendès France opposed de Gaulle's seizure of power in May 1958, when the mounting crisis in Algeria brought about a breakdown in the Fourth Republic system and the creation of a Fifth Republic. He led the ''Union of Democratic Forces'', an anti- Gaullist group, but in the November 1958 elections he lost his seat in the Assembly. After being expelled from the Radical Party, whose majority faction supported de Gaulle, in late 1959 he joined the Autonomous Socialist Party (PSA), a breakaway group from the SFIO.
In April 1960, the PSA merged with several other groups to form the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). He made an unsuccessful bid to regain his seat in the National Assembly representing
Eure
Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.De Gaulle Wins In France . St. Petersburg Times. 19 November 1962
In 1967 he returned to the Assembly as a PSU member for the
Isère
Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.
, but again lost his seat in the 1968 landslide election victory of the Gaullist party UDR. Mendès France and the PSU expressed sympathy for the sentiments and actions of the student rioters during the events of May 1968, a position unusual for a politician of his age and status. One year later, Pompidou's socialist opponent in the presidential election of 1969,
Gaston Defferre
Gaston Defferre (14 September 1910 – 7 May 1986) was a French Socialist politician. He served as mayor of Marseille for 33 years until his death in 1986. He was minister for overseas territories in Guy Mollet’s socialist government in 1956 ...
of the SFIO, designated him his preferred Prime Minister prior to the election. The two campaigned together in what was the first – and so far only – dual "ticket" in a French presidential election. Defferre gained only 5% of the vote and was eliminated in the election's first round. When
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...
formed a new Socialist Party in 1971, Mendès France supported him, but did not attempt another political comeback. He lived long enough to see Mitterrand elected president.
Political career
;Governmental function
*President of the Council of Ministers : 1954–1955.
*Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1954–1955.
*Minister of State : January–May 1956 (Resignation).
;Electoral mandates
''National Assembly of France''
*Member of the
National Assembly of France
The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...
for
Eure
Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.National Assembly of France
The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...
for
Isère
Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.
(2nd constituency) : 1967–1968. Elected in 1968.
''General Council''
*President of the General Council of
Eure
Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.Eure
Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.Louviers
Louviers () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in north-western France.
Louviers is from Paris and from Rouen.
Population
History
Prehistory
In th ...
: 1935–1939 (Resignation) / 1953–1958 (Resignation). Reelected in 1953.
*Municipal councillor of
Louviers
Louviers () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure Departments of France, department in Normandy (administrative region), Normandy in north-western France.
Louviers is from Paris and from Rouen.
Population
History
Prehistory
In th ...
: 1935–1939 (Resignation) / 1953–1958 (Resignation). Reelected in 1953.
Mendès France's first Ministry, 19 June 1954 – 20 January 1955
* Pierre Mendès France – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
* Marie Pierre Koenig – Minister of National Defense and Armed Forces
*
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...
– Minister of the Interior
* Edgar Faure – Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Planning
* Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury – Minister of Commerce and Industry
* Eugène Claudius-Petit – Minister of Labour and Social Security
* Émile Hugues – Minister of Justice
* Jean Berthoin – Minister of National Education
*Emmanuel Temple – Minister of Veterans and War Victims
* Roger Houdet – Minister of Agriculture
* Robert Buron – Minister of Overseas France
*
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d ...
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d ...
Mendès France's second Ministry, 20 January 1955 – 23 February 1955
* Pierre Mendès France – President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs
* Edgar Faure – Minister of Foreign Affairs
* Jacques Chevallier – Minister of National Defense
* Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury – Minister of Armed Forces
*
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...
– Minister of the Interior
* Robert Buron – Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Planning
* Henri Ulver – Minister of Commerce and Industry
* Louis Aujoulat – Minister of Labor and Social Security
* Emmanuel Temple – Minister of Justice
* Raymond Schmittlein – Minister of Merchant Marine
* Jean Berthoin – Minister of National Education
* Jean Masson – Minister of Veterans and War Victims
* Roger Houdet – Minister of Agriculture
* Jean-Jacques Juglas – Minister of Overseas France
*
Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d ...
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
*
Croix de Guerre 1939–1945
Croix (French for "cross") may refer to:
Belgium
* Croix-lez-Rouveroy, a village in municipality of Estinnes in the province of Hainaut
France
* Croix, Nord, in the Nord department
* Croix, Territoire de Belfort, in the Territoire de Belfort d ...
Order of Leopold (Belgium)
The Order of Leopold (, , ) is one of the three current Belgian national honorary orders of knighthood. It is the oldest and highest order of Belgium and is named in honour of its founder, King Leopold I. It consists of a military, a ma ...
*Aussaresses, Paul. ''The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955–1957''. (New York: Enigma Books, 2010) .
* De Tarr, Francis. ''The French Radical Party: From Herriot to Mendès-France'' (Greenwood, 1980).
* Lacouture, Jean. ''Pierre Mendes France'' (English ed. 1984), scholarly biography online * Alexander Werth, ''The Strange History of Pierre Mendès France and the Great Conflict over French North Africa.'' Barrie. London 1957 online * Wilsford, David, ed. ''Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary'' (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 313–18