tance in relations with others was an inherent feature of de Gaulle's
political style. "The man of character . . . ," he wrote during the
formative years of his political and military development, "is inevita-
bly aloof, for there can be no authority without prestige, nor prestige
unless he keep his distance." ⁴ For him, words were as important to
describe an event or to analyze a problem as they were to create the
political reality that influences and directs the behavior of states and
men. The political art, de Gaulle is quoted as saying, consists in
"crystallizing in words that which the future is going to demon-
strate." ⁵ His war memoirs suggest an extraordinary hindsight in pre-
dicting the outcome of World War II. ⁶ Also, his staged news confer-
ences with their planted queries, rhetorical questions, and the stylized
use of the third person appeared calculated to produce preconceived
political effects. ⁷ Audacious and even insulting language, designed to
attract attention, signal policy changes to underlings and foreign gov-
ernments, command respect, or simply to outrage, served higher po-
litical purposes as de Gaulle illustrated in his stormy relations with
President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill
during World War II. ⁸ Even silence helped to confound enemies and
to enhance personal authority. ⁹

No consensus exists on how to distinguish between candor and dis-

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