After all, he created the unique DeGaullist philosophy that justified France's cynical opportunism, maintaining that France must operate independently of its "allies" or else risk internal political fracture. France, then, would partly oppose the U.S. geopolitically to extract maximum political advantages for itself, and let others bear higher costs for ends that France itself desired, yet would not admit publicly.
DeGaulle either wouldn't admit, or implicitly accepted, that such a policy would be a moral cancer that would eat into the French soul: if France cannot articulate its true desires and interests, how can its people tell what France truly stands for, good or evil, brotherhood or selfishness?
Clearly this disease is as much a part of France's domestic politics as it is of its foreign policy. Will the French elite change, do nothing, or depart? They can no longer comfort themselves by thinking Aprés moi, le deluge.
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