Childhood & Early Life
Georges Bidault was born on October 5, 1899 in Moilins, Allier, France.
He attended an Italian Jesuit school in his initial days.
He left school to join the French Army for a few years and was sent to Ruhr. He was discharged when Armistice was declared in 1918.
He returned to France and got a degree in history and geography from Sorbonne in 1925.
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Career
Georges Bidault became a history teacher in a Paris college in 1931 after getting his degree in history.
In 1932 he founded the ‘Catholic Association of French Youth’ and also a left-wing newspaper named ‘l-Aube’ or ‘The Dawn’.
He started writing a column about foreign affairs which showed his dislike for Facism and Nazism. He wrote this column till 1939.
With the outbreak of World War II he joined the French Army but was captured during the invasion of France in 1940.
He was released in 1941 with other veterans and took up work as a history teacher at Lycee du Parc in Lyon.
He joined the ‘National Council of Resistance’ and became its head in July 1943 when its leader Jean Moulin was captured and killed by the Germans.
In 1944 he was almost captured by the Gestapo in 1944 and evaded arrest narrowly. The same year he founded the ‘Mouvement Republicain Populaire’ or MRP party.
When Charles de Gaulle headed the provisional government in France in 1944, he ppointed Bidault the foreign minister.
In December 1944 he signed the Franco-Soviet Alliance and The United Nations Charter on behalf of his government.
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He attended the UN conference held from April to June 1945 as the head of the French delegation where he was able to get a permanent seat for France in the UN Security Council.
On June 19, 1946 he became the head of the provisional government for a few months after the resignation of de Gaulle.
As the head of the provisional government he passed several acts in 1946 which benefitted the French workmen.
Bidault resigned from his position after the National Assembly elections on November 29, 1946.
In 1947 as the foreign minister in Paul Ramadier’s government he supported the expulsion of the Communists from the government and opposed an agreement with Stalin.
In 1948 he negotiated for the formation of a union of western European states which later became known as NATO.
He became the Prime Minister or the ‘President of the Council of Ministers’ of France in 1949 but served in the position for only eight months.
At the end of his tenure he passed a law in February 1950 which legalized the workers right to strike to get their demands fulfilled and fixed the minimum wages for industrial and agricultural workers.
During the period 1950 to 1951 he acted as the ‘Vice President of the Council’ in the Henri Queuille government and as the defense minister in the Rene Pleven and the Edgar Faure governments.
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Bidault became the honorary president of the MRP party in 1952.
President Vincent Auriol asked Bidault to form a government on June 1, 1953, but the National Assembly and his own government opposed the motion on June 10, 1953.
He put his name forward as the next presidential candidate in 1953 but after the second round of voting withdrew his name.
He became the Prime Minister of France for the second time in 1958 and pledged his support to de Gaulle for the post of President.
The ‘Algerian war of Independence’ broke out and de Gaulle decided in favor of Algeria’s independence but it was vehemently opposed by Bidault.
In 1961 he formed a far-right paramilitary organization called ‘Organisation de L’Armee Secrete’ or OAS which advocated terrorism to prevent the independence of Algeria.
He was accused of treachery and conspiracy in 1962 and his parliamentary immunity was abolished.
He fled to Brazil and the Belgium where he stayed from 1963 to 1967.
He returned to France in 1968 after an amnesty was granted to him. The same year he founded a far-rightwing movement called ‘Mouvement pour le justice et la liberte’.
He became the honorary president of this party but left active politics soon after.
