Father of France

Chapter 30 Clash of the Four Major Political Parties

The army is the backbone of a country; a country's strength depends entirely on its army. Therefore, the only option is to make sacrifices in the navy and air force to win over the French Communist Party.

After the Napoleonic Wars, France gradually gave up its ambitions for hegemony, and in the late 19th century, France established a strategy of a green-water navy.

That's right, the concept of a green-water navy was proposed by France, and for some time afterward, France spent time defining what a green-water navy was.

Before the outbreak of World War I, France had established a plan centered on the newly emerging high-speed torpedo boats and submarines. In modern terms, France's Green Water Navy plan was a naval construction scheme that was strategically different from the British Royal Navy, with air, submarine and fast attack craft as its core.

However, it is clear that the air-to-surface speed was only a stopgap measure, and later events proved that this thing was useless in a major battle concerning life and death.

Since it's an air force, how could it not have the role of the air force? In 1909, France established the world's first aviation military academy, which was later followed by the establishment of the Air Service, the predecessor of the air force.

Although the airplane was invented by the Wright brothers, Americans, the Wright brothers were patent trolls similar to Edison. Therefore, before World War I, the country with the fastest development of aviation in the world was actually France.

Peacetime is one thing, wartime is another. When a war breaks out, it comes down to the strength of a nation’s overall power. France was overtaken by Britain and Germany. As for the French air force before the outbreak of World War II, it was in a state of chaos.

As for now, even if Charles Dijon were to become the Minister of the Air Force, he would be a commander without troops. Moreover, due to the fall of the homeland, the reconstruction of the French Air Force would inevitably depend on British and American aviation technology and assistance, and this French Communist Party Minister of the Air Force would still have some disputes with Britain and the United States.

According to Admiral Dragon, it would be better to just lay everything out directly without any unnecessary words. He didn't like this kind of political exchange of interests and even found it quite repulsive.

After all, just over two years ago, he was merely a major in the Foreign Legion of the colony and had not experienced much of this kind of situation.

The provisional government did not only have representatives of the French Communist Party, but also leaders of other parties. Although de Gaulle disliked the parliamentary system and the numerous parties that came and went in turn, it was still useful in dealing with the French Communist Party.

Now the effects are showing. These parties also know that the French Communist Party has its own armed forces. More importantly, no other party besides the French Communist Party has them. The fact that only the French Communist Party is special is definitely not acceptable.

Pidur, the leader of the People's Republican Movement, had long worked in the diplomatic system, and now he used all the eloquence he had honed in that system on Torres.

Another leader, Tyjean, emphasized from the legal perspective that the existence of the French Communist Party's armed forces was not only inconsistent with the legal system of the Third Republic, but also violated French tradition.

Radical Socialist Party leader Jalab was even more outspoken, directly questioning the French Communist Party's loyalty to the country and believing that the party could pose a threat to the French national system, following the example of the Soviet Communist Party in establishing the Soviet Union.

The three major parties made statements one after another, some reasoning with the French Communist Party and others questioning its loyalty to the country, creating a very lively scene.

In theory, all parties in the provisional government were equal, and the heated debates were quite lively. General Dragon tried to stay awake for a while, but his mind kept wandering.

He was a soldier and had never seen anything like this before. He used to be a major in Syria, where he was the one in charge of his unit. But the course of history hit him on the head, and he was still the one in charge of the First Army Group.

Although he lacked classic battle examples to draw upon, General Dragon had not made the widely publicized mistake of witnessing such a scene. He had never witnessed such a noisy scene at headquarters; it was indeed noisy, at least that's his opinion. These parties, coupled with Pompidou's pressure, ultimately achieved their goal: Charles Dijon finally accepted the position of Minister of the Air Force.

This was certainly not the whole point. De Gaulle pressed on and proposed drafting a bill to nationalize the army, bringing all armed forces under the control of political parties—in other words, the armed forces of the French Communist Party—under state control.

Some political parties also had small-scale anti-German armed forces, but they were no match for the French Communist Party's armed forces.

The bill also received support from parties such as the Socialist Party, the Radical Socialist Party, and the People's Republican Movement, which was within de Gaulle's expectations. Respecting a multi-party parliamentary system was precisely for the sake of today's scene.

The French Communist Party is indeed the strongest party now, but this strength is by no means a one-party dominance. The combined strength of the other three major parties still far exceeds that of the French Communist Party.

If the French Communist Party rejects the bill to nationalize the army, it will become a target of public criticism, and its current rapid expansion will come to an abrupt halt.

Dorez eventually agreed, and the drafting of the nationalization bill for the military began, with plans to publish it next month.

General Dragon didn't want to stay a moment longer and wanted to leave the city hall, but de Gaulle stopped him, "Are you in such a hurry to go back to headquarters?"

De Gaulle knew that Dragon had moved the headquarters of the First Army to Marseille. Coincidentally, he had another matter involving Marseille. Marseille was the second largest city in France, certainly not comparable to Paris, where France held a dominant position. However, Paris and Marseille did have something in common: they were always revolutionaries.

De Gaulle assumed that Admiral Dragon was returning to headquarters to devise a plan for the invasion of Italy, which was true, but Dragon's sincerity surprised him: "My wife is due to give birth in the next few days."

This unexpected answer prompted de Gaulle to quip, then try to justify himself, saying, "Oh, I see. No wonder you were in such a hurry to get back. You were worried about the children. Time flies."

When de Gaulle went to Damascus, Adilé was not present, so he was unaware that Dragon had remarried.

"I'm not too worried. The guards will contact Coman, and he'll make arrangements if I have any urgent business." General Dragon was just feeling dizzy from the bickering between the parties, but he was much better now and not in a hurry to leave.

"Your genius?" de Gaulle said knowingly. "He seems like an easy child to raise. I wonder what he's doing now."

“Serving in the Youth Division, he’s currently working on eliminating French traitors.” Dracon showed no sign of leaving and began chatting with de Gaulle. “He’s five years younger than Philippe, which makes me very proud.”

They didn't talk much about the children, just touched on the topic briefly. Since the war wasn't over yet, their conversation drifted back to the war and Charles Dijon's position as Minister of the Air Force.

General Dragon also expressed his opinion and his confusion, but de Gaulle did not answer this question.

General Dragon could only suppress his doubts and point out more specific issues: "Britain and the United States will not share their most advanced aviation technology with us. The defense industry has been stagnant for four years. The only way to make up for it is to take it from Germany, a defeated country."

(End of this chapter)