Washington History Seminar
Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs

 "More than Just a Scourge:
General de Gaulle and the Cold War"

Garret Martin
EUROPEAN INSTITUTE and AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

General de Gaulle is often remembered as the great scourge of the Western Alliance during the 1960s, the mercurial French President who launched a global and comprehensive challenge against the United States’ leadership of the Free World. But de Gaulle was driven by more than simply obstructionism or a desire to make life difficult for his American allies. Garret Martin will make the case that the General pursued an ambitious, if flawed, grand strategy during the 1960s through which he sought to overcome the Cold War bipolar order.

Garret Martin is an editor at large at the European Institute, based in Washington, DC, and a board member of the Institute’s journal, European Affairs. The author of General de Gaulle’s Cold War: Challenging American Hegemony, 1963-1968 (2013) and a co-editor of Globalizing de Gaulle: International Perspectives on French Foreign Policies, 1958-1969 (2010), he teaches transatlantic relations past and present at American University.

Monday September 9, 2013
 4:00 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Moynihan Board Room
Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Triangle Metro Stop

Reservations requested because of limited seating:
mbarber@historians.org or 202-450-3209

Photo ID required for admittance to the building.

 September 16: Joseph C. Miller (Univ. of Virginia) on debt in Africa

Co-sponsored by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center, the seminar is directed by Eric Arnesen and Christian Ostermann. It meets weekly during the academic year, January to May and September to December. See www.nationalhistorycenter.org for the schedule, speakers, topics, and dates as well as webcasts and podcasts. The seminar is grateful for the support of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.