Georges Catroux

General Georges Catroux (London, as member of de Gaulle's staff, October 1940)

Georges Albert Julien Catroux (born January 29, 1877 in Limoges , Haute-Vienne , † December 21, 1969 in Paris ) was a French general and diplomat during the mid-20th century. He was one of the highest-ranking members of the Free France Movement under Charles de Gaulle .

Life

A graduate of the French Military Academy of Saint-Cyr , Catroux took part in the First World War as an officer . He then held various posts in the French colonial administration until he was appointed Governor General of French Indochina in July 1938 by Colonial Minister Georges Mandel . When he took office on August 22, he was the first military governor of the colony since civil administration was established there in 1879.

Its main task was to secure French Indochina against expansionist efforts by the Japanese , who had been waging a brutal war of aggression against the Republic of China since 1937 . However, since France was occupied by German troops in the summer of 1940, the colony was practically isolated. Since Catroux was not a supporter of the Vichy government installed in 1940 , he had started negotiations with British diplomats in order to thwart the threatened occupation of French Indochina by the Japanese with the help of English forces . When this became known to the Vichy administration , Catroux was relieved of his post. He was replaced by Admiral Jean Decoux , who held the position until March 1945.

After his dismissal, Catroux joined the government of free France that had meanwhile been founded by Charles de Gaulle . As the representative of this government in the Middle East, he declared independence from Syria and Lebanon in 1941 . From 1943 to 1944 he was Governor General of Algeria . In 1944 he became North Africa Minister in the French Provisional Government. From 1945 to 1948 he was the French ambassador to the Soviet Union . After unrest in Morocco, he negotiated the return of the Moroccan King Mohammed V to his home country in 1955 . As North Africa Minister in Guy Mollet's cabinet , he was unable to take up his post because of the declarations of the nationalists announced in Algiers on February 6, 1956.

Catroux was a judge in the military tribunal that led the trial of Generals Raoul Salan , Maurice Challe , Edmond Jouhaud and André Zeller , who were members of the secret organization OAS . On April 23, 1961, they led a military coup against President de Gaulle in Algiers to prevent Algeria from securing France from France, but they soon failed.

Publications

• In the Battle of the Mediterranean ( French : Dans la bataille de la Méditerranée ) (1950)
• I saw the Iron Curtain fall ( French : J'ai vu tomber le rideau de fer ) (1951)
• Lyautey the Moroccan ( French : Lyautey le Marocain ) (1952)
• Two missions in the Middle East, 1919–1922 ( French : Deux missions au Moyen-Orient, 1919–1922 ) (1958)
• Two acts of Indochinese drama - Hanoi: July 1940 / Dien Bien Phu: March to May 1954 , ( French : Deux actes du drame indochinois - Hanoi: juin 1940 / Dien Bien Phu: mars-mai 1954.) (1959)

Web links

Commons : Georges Catroux  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography of René Massigli in the magazine Politique étrangère , 1970 No. 35 pp. 149–155 (French)
• Newspaper article about Georges Catroux in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .