There are those who say I am in alliance with communists, Freemasons, and Jews, while others claim that I want to turn France into a monarchy, an empire, even a dictatorship. These imaginative people are all forgetting just one thing: France is invaded … and if this were not the case I would still be an officer in our army, expecting to end my career, and I am not a politician but simply a patriot who wants to liberate his country.

—General de Gaulle, in Charles de Gaulle by Philippe Barrès
(Translated by Grace McQuillan)

I am just a humble soldier in your combat forces …

—Jean-Claude Servan-Schreiber, Letter to General de Gaulle (Translated by Grace McQuillan)