From Resistance chief to architect of the Marshall Plan response, the foreign minister who told Molotov that Soviet actions divided Europe
On July 2, 1947, when Molotov denounced the Marshall Plan as a plot to divide Europe, Bidault rose and quietly replied that it was the Soviet Union, by its own actions, that was splitting the continent; the next day he and Bevin sent invitations to 16 nations.
Bidault succeeded Jean Moulin as president of the National Resistance Council in 1943, leading the French internal Resistance, and after the Liberation co-founded the Christian-democratic MRP. As foreign minister at the 1947 Paris Three-Power Conference, he answered Molotov's charge that the Marshall Plan was 'dividing Europe' with the retort that Soviet actions alone were splitting the continent; when Molotov walked out, Bidault and Bevin rallied 16 Western European nations behind the plan. He served as premier in 1946 and 1949–50, and as foreign minister during Dien Bien Phu he even asked the US for atomic bombs. An irreconcilable opponent of Algerian independence, he organized a clandestine 'second CNR' in 1962, lost his parliamentary immunity, and spent four years in Brazilian exile before the 1968 amnesty.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1899Born in Moulins, Allier, France
- 1925First in the agrégation in history and geography; teaching and Christian-democratic journalism
- 1943–1944President of the CNR, succeeding Jean Moulin; led unified Resistance
- 1944–1946Foreign minister under de Gaulle; chief French delegate to the UN founding conference in San Francisco
- 1947Foreign minister; faced down Molotov at the Paris Three-Power Conference and led Marshall Plan adoption
- 1946, 1949–1950Prime minister twice: chairman of the Provisional Government (1946) and president of the Council (1949–50)
- 1954Foreign minister during the Dien Bien Phu crisis
- 1962–1968Stripped of immunity for opposing Algerian independence; exiled in Brazil; returned under the 1968 amnesty
Related historical events
- 1940–1944The French Resistance and the Liberation of FranceLeader of the unified French ResistanceElected CNR president in 1943, he led the effort to unify the Resistance.
- 1947–1948The Marshall Plan and the Cold WarFrench foreign minister who stood up to MolotovAs French foreign minister, he hosted the Paris tripartite conference and directly refuted Molotov, arguing that Europe's division was the fault of Soviet actions.
- 1945–1954The August Revolution and the First Indochina WarFrench foreign ministerOpened the Geneva conference and tried to preserve France’s position.
President of the National Resistance Council and the Resistance Charter (1943–1944)
Bidault attended the first meeting of the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) on 27 May 1943 as delegate of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), and, together with Jean Moulin, drafted the founding motion adopted that day. The text committed the Council to backing de Gaulle for leadership of the provisional government while reducing Giraud to commander of the army, displacing a communist-drafted motion that had spared Giraud. When the Gestapo arrested Moulin on 21 June 1943 the CNR presidency fell vacant, and with no instruction from London the Council elected Bidault his successor almost unanimously in the first week of September. The source describes him as working simultaneously in the movements and in the Free French Delegation and as on good terms with Moulin, which is why it calls him the man of continuity.
As president, Bidault's essential task was to hold the Resistance together. Because a full meeting of the sixteen members was too dangerous, a five-member Bureau was created, comprising Bidault, Maxime Blocq-Mascart, Pascal Copeau, Louis Saillant and Pierre Villon; Bidault chaired its sessions once or twice a week. Within the Bureau Bidault represented the Radical Party and the Democratic Alliance, a role distinct from the PDP delegation by which he sat on the Council. Contrary to what de Gaulle suggested in his war memoirs, the Bureau was not infiltrated by the French Communist Party: until the Liberation Villon was that party's only spokesman. The sources stress that decisions were consistently preserved by collegiality and unanimity, and that negotiations over the CNR programme occupied nine months, from July 1943 to March 1944.
The CNR programme, originally titled Les Jours heureux, was adopted unanimously by the Council. It covered both immediate action during the Liberation and long-term reforms: the restoration of universal suffrage and freedom of the press; nationalization of the major monopolized means of production, energy sources, subsoil wealth, insurance companies and major banks; the restoration of independent trade unionism and worker participation in management; and a comprehensive social security plan. The sources single out as distinctive the fact that the programme was adopted by the whole spectrum of political groups within the Resistance, and that most of its proposals shaped French reform debates and policy from the 1944 Liberation to early 1946. On the adoption date the cited source itself gives two dates in the same article: its introduction states that the text was unanimously adopted on 9 March 1944, while its detailed account of the drafting places the final adoption by the CNR Bureau on 15 March 1944. Because no plenary meeting of the Council was held between November 1943 and August 1944, the final text was approved by the Bureau rather than by a unanimous plenary assembly. Bidault's own role in drafting was that of the presiding chairman who kept the Bureau's discussions moving toward consensus, while Villon drove the drafting; the sources therefore do not support casting Bidault as the programme's sole author. He left the CNR on 9 September 1944 to become foreign minister in de Gaulle's provisional government.