In early 1965, shipments of dollars arrived at the New York port and airport, which France had sent to exchange for gold held by the US Federal Reserve.
This action infuriated the American leadership, however, it was forced to give the gold owed to the French.
What prompted the general to "riot"
The reasons for this act were laid down by events that began during the Second World War. Already in the last years of the war, this fierce patriot of a strong France, despite his direct dependence on the Anglo-Saxon countries, who was not going to make her their puppet, greatly irritated the leaders of the United States and Great Britain.
In the course of interaction within the group of Western allies, de Gaulle's active contacts with the USSR, the prerequisites for a conflict between the general and the United States were formed.
At the same time, with the conclusion of the Breton Woods Accords, the very system of global financial dominance of the United States was created, which was challenged by de Gaulle.
In July 1944, in the American town of Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, during a conference with the participation of dozens of key countries of the world, the international system of monetary relations and trade of the same name was created, incredibly beneficial, primarily to the US leadership and canceling the previous system based on the principles "Gold standard".
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The United States, which became extremely wealthy through trade during World War II, controlled most of the world's gold reserves and world GDP, and during the conference managed to impose a new settlement procedure on 44 states, including France, in which the currencies of the states that joined the system were pegged to the dollar, and the American currency itself to gold.
In theory, the Americans were supposed to give in exchange for their currency, the gold they held at the request of the holders of the dollar. Naturally, it was not practiced, and the agreement itself was a means of ensuring the economic domination of the American empire, with which the same USSR naturally did not agree.
After gaining power, de Gaulle quickly realized the danger of the system that had developed in Bretton Woods.
General strategy
From the very beginning of his active political activity, de Gaulle did not want to cave in under the United States. Even before the presidency, he strongly clashed with the general, and then the leader of the United States, Eisenhower, who was supposed to become the head of the American contingent in France, and in fact, control the country.
The "last great Frenchman" advocated the project of a strong Europe (with the exception of Britain), and within the framework of this strategy, he sought to strengthen contacts with former enemies in the person of the FRG, was ready to actively cooperate with the USSR, despite the general dislike of communism.
Moreover, he was not only ready, but also went to strengthen cooperation with the Union, which he visited several times. With the USSR, the general established a fairly constructive relationship.
De Gaulle actively strengthened the defense potential of France, abandoned the burdensome burden of the colonies, despite the fierce and dangerous opposition of the right for him, doing everything to increase the strength of the French Republic.
President de Gaulle initiated and accelerated the development of French nuclear weapons. He clashed with the United States and NATO for a long time, and eventually left the Alliance.
Financial blow
Aware of the enormous harm to both the French and European economies from participation in the Bretton Woods agreements, de Gaulle was preparing to strike a blow in the financial direction.
Back in February 1965, at a press conference with the world media, the Frenchman explicitly announced his intention to challenge dollar domination, saying that he could not provide any other standard for the monetary system other than gold directly, which caused a worldwide sensation.
Upon learning of this, US President Lyndon Johnson spoke in the spirit that de Gaulle was "completely mad." In the spring of the same year, a shipment of American dollars from France arrived in the United States.
Consequences of the demarche
Despite threats and altercations, the United States was forced to fulfill its obligations by receiving dollars and giving gold to the French. A process began, which stretched until the end of the year, during which the first tranche of exchanging dollars for gold, in the amount of 1.5 billion, was followed by the rest, and as a result, of the 5.5 billion dollars available at the beginning of the process, France had only 800 million …
To the misfortune of the US Federal Reserve, the Germans, Japanese, Canadians and representatives of other countries followed the French, as a result of which the US "gold reserve" drastically emptied, dropping to an extremely low level, according to the US authorities.
De Gaulle did not wait for the final results of his actions, and was actually deprived of power during the "student unrest" that began in 1968 at the Sorbonne, which grew into a full-scale strike and a political crisis.
The events of 1968, which, oddly enough, de Gaulle politically survived (his party won more than 70% of the votes in the parliamentary elections after that), nevertheless, forced him to resign, and, according to many experts, became one of the first examples of future "Color revolutions".
There is a lot of evidence of the participation of globalist and pro-American structures in the events of 1968.
In 1971, President Nixon announced the abolition of the gold backing of the dollar, and during the 1970s, the entire Bretton Woods system was abolished. De Gaulle did not live to see this (he died in 1970).
However, this did not become a direct victory for de Gaulle: the pegging of the dollar as the main currency of world trade to gold was replaced by the current one, practically unsecured, absolutely speculative and virtual.
It would seem that in the end we see the complete defeat of the de Gaulle case, the subsequent collapse of the Soviet alternative, the death of the rioters Gaddafi and Hugo Chavez, the total domination of the imposed economy.
However, it is likely that in the near future the shot made by de Gaulle at the very heart of the world financial international will nevertheless achieve its goal, decades later.
Pavel Skakun