Charles de Gaulle
![](/Images/godic/202501/08/Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F010324-0002,_Flughafen_Köln-Bonn,_Adenauer,_de_Gaulle-cropped2030.jpg")
![De Gaulle's birth house in Lille, now a national museum](/Images/godic/202501/08/Maaison_natale_Ch_de_Gaulle_Lille2030.jpg")
![A plaque in Dinant commemorating the place where Charles de Gaulle, then an infantry lieutenant, was wounded while crossing the Meuse in 1914](/Images/godic/202501/08/CDG_Pont_Dinant2030.JPG")
![Charles de Gaulle (far right) with Andrew McNaughton, Władysław Sikorski, and Winston Churchill](/Images/godic/202501/08/Sikorski_McNaughton_Churchill_de_Gaulle_C0640272030.jpg")
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (French: [ʃaʁl də ɡol]; 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French military general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France (1940–44) and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944–46). In 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, a position he held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era and his memory continues to influence French politics.