Thread by @GrayConnolly

As this month of May ends, sounder people reflect on its upheavals, including that ultimate "Ingrate Boomer" moment, May 1968, when feral students etal protested & rioted in, of all places, France, and against all people, the greatest French President, General Charles de Gaulle.

One of many reasons why General & then President Charles de Gaulle is so crucial a figure in French history is that he understood his role, as the leader of WW2's Free French, was to, 'Reconcile the Right with the French Republic and the Left with the French nation.' #MyPresident

As so often happens, it seems, in the 1960s, esp France, the generation that went through WW2, often raised in or around the carnage of WW1, had a massive cultural gap with some in what are now Boomers, who would scoff at their elders' culture and morals personified by de Gaulle

By May of 1968 - and you can read various accounts of grievances, real or imagined, among the soixante-huitard (68ers) - there were strikes and protests throughout France, often violent ones. What would become of France, again, threatened by such strife in its capital?

The French had by May 1968 had two centuries of almost constant revolution, war, uprising and, even, foreign occupations: 1815, 1871, World War II. The French had also had challenges in their Empire, from Algeria to Vietnam. The logic of President de Gaulle had been obvious.

In the prior decade, de Gaulle's main threat had been from his Right - the disgruntled, especially French officers, of the Secret Armed Organisation (OAS), who had resented/resisted France's relinquishing Algeria & even tried to organise de Gaulle's assasination in 1962.

But by May 1968, the real problems for the French Republic and for General de Gaulle as its President were all on his Left - and something had to be done, lest France fall, as so often it had since 1789, into further chaos, if not ruptures and civil war.

Thus the riots and disorder were so horrible that OTD in May 1968, President de Gaulle left France and flew to the French military HQ in Baden-Baden in Germany to meet General Jacques Massu....de Gaulle wanted to know if he had the Army's support if needed. Massu said, "Oui..."

To be continued ......

On this day in 1968, French President Charles de Gaulle, amid the May riots, dissolved the National Assembly, ordered new elections & threatened to institute a State of Emergency if protesters did not return to work. The Gaullists rallied in Paris in support of General de Gaulle

May 1968 ends with French war veterans, farmers, workers & loyal 'citoyens' from all over France, often carrying the French Resistance's historic Cross of Lorraine flag, coming to Paris to oppose the Left & rally in support of President Charles de Gaulle #MyPresident