Strategic national defense visions according to Charles de Gaulle.

Charles de GAULLE (1890.1970)

Autograph letter signed to Lucien Nachin.

Four pages in-8 ° on the header paper of the firm of Marshal Pétain.

Paris. January 12, 1926.

“The defensive organization, permanently necessary, [...] is a case of government. »»

Detached in the cabinet of Marshal Pétain, Captain Charles de Gaulle develops his strategic visions for national defense. Praising the memory of some older soldiers such as Vauban, Gouvion Saint-Cyr and Séré de Rivières, he alerts his correspondent for the essential need for a modern and voluntary army.

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“My dear comrade, the observations that you wanted to address to me yesterday about the study on the“ role of our places ”are, for me, a new proof of your understanding and the penetration of your mind; All are judicious and if I do not join each one, believe that I take advantage of it.

We agree, it seems to me, as to the way of judging Vauban, Gouvion st cyr and even serene with rivers . Each of these men must be rented for having been able to synthesize the conditions of the national defense in their time; All three believed necessary , -precisely because they made this synthesis -, to draw up a defensive system of the territory. But, perhaps we do not quite see things from the same angle, thinking of today's necessities.

You seemed worried about a defensive organization that would chain the command plan. So it should not be, in my humble opinion, that the defensive organization is,-as many wish-depending on the operations plan. The defensive organization, which is permanently necessary, and which is due to the geographic, political, even moral conditions where the country is located is a case of government. 

The operations plan is the command affair. This brings the places (whatever their form) in its means of means of means of means, exactly as it does between the workforce, the material, the mechanical power.

If I have a good fortune to meet you some day, I will specify, if you don't mind, what we could do today. Again, all my thanks, my dear comrade all my new year wishes and the assurance of my very high esteem and my very cordial sympathy. C. de Gaulle. »»