Pierre Marie Gallois

Pierre Marie Gallois (born June 29, 1911 in Turin , Italy , † August 23, 2010 in Paris , France ) was a French Brigadier General of the Air Force and geostrategist. He is also known as the father of the French atomic bomb .

life and career

Pierre Marie Gallois is born into an impoverished middle-class family. He received his secondary education at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris. After completing military training in Versailles, in 1936, he became a sub-lieutenant in a squadron stationed in Colomb-Bechar in the Sahara. In the same year he was promoted to lieutenant . In 1939 he was transferred to the General Staff in Algiers . In 1943 he moved to Great Britain, where he took part in attacks on Axis powers as a navigator of British bombers .

After an excursion into civil aviation, Gallois worked from 1948 on the staff of the High Command of the Armée de l'air . As an expert in the field of armaments and industrial production, he presented the first five-year plan for air armaments, which was accepted by Parliament in 1950. He also takes part in considerations on air armaments at European level.

In 1953, now with the rank of colonel, he was assigned to the staff of the French Minister of Defense. At the same time, he is also assigned to the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe , where he is a member of a research group that deals with the consequences for geopolitics and military strategy that arise from the existence of weapons of mass destruction. He campaigned for a French atomic bomb early on. In this context he speaks of "personal deterrence" and advocates the idea of intimidating the "weak against the strong". He is one of the fathers of Gerboise bleue , the project that would ultimately lead to the French atomic bomb. As part of his activities, he travels frequently to the United States, where he attended a nuclear weapons test in 1955 .

In 1957 he is retired. Most recently he held the rank of brigadier general.

After his active time he continued to deal with problems of geopolitics. In this subject he has given lectures at a variety of universities and military schools in France and around the world. Politically, he advocated an independent foreign policy for France and in 2005 advocated a "no" in the referendum on the treaty on a constitution for Europe .

Books

1957: L'Europe au défi , Plon (en collaboration)
1960: Stratégie de l'âge nucléaire , Calman-Lévy
1961: L'Alliance atlantique , Berger-Levrault (en collaboration)
1961: Balance of terror , Houghton and Miffin, New York
1962: Europe’s Shutz , Condor Verlag
1967: Paradoxes de la paix , Presse du Temps Présent
1972: L'Europe change de maître , L'Herne
1975: La Grande Berne , Plon
1976: L'Adieu aux armées , Albin Michel
1977: Le Renoncement , Plon
1985: La Guerre des cent secondes , Fayard
1990: Géopolitique, les voies de la puissance , Plon
1992: Geopolitica, los caminos del poder , Éditions Ejércitos, Madrid
1994: Livre noir sur la defense , Plon
1995: Le Sang du pétrole - tome I: Iraq - tome II: Bosnie, L'Âge d'Homme
1995: Le Soleil d'Allah aveugle l'Occident , L'Âge d'Homme
1999: Le Sablier du siècle , L'Âge d'Homme
1999: La France sort-elle de l'Histoire? , L'Âge d'Homme
2001: Le Réquisitoire , L'Âge d'Homme
2001: Écrits de guerre , L'Âge d'Homme
2001: Mémoires des ondes , L'Âge d'Homme
2001: Le Consentement fatal , Éditions Textuel
2002: L'Année du terrorisme , L'Âge d'Homme
2002: Devoir de vérité , Le Cerf
2003: L'Année des fiascos , L'Âge d'Homme
2004: L'Heure fatale de l'Occident , L'Âge d'Homme
2005: Vichy - Alger - Londres , L'Âge d'Homme
2007: Manifeste pour une Europe des peuples (en collaboration), Éditions du Rouvre

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Gallois, Pierre Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gallois, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French military, brigadier general and author
DATE OF BIRTH	June 29, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Turin
DATE OF DEATH	August 23, 2010
Place of death	Paris