Mendès-France, Pierre

(1907–82)

   French statesman. Mendès-France was one of the most intelligent and courageous leaders France has had in modern times. Born in Paris, he joined the Radical Socialist party at the age of sixteen, and at twenty-five was the youngest member of the National Assembly. He held a junior post in the Popular Front government under Léon BLUM from 1936–8. By then he was regarded as a leading financial expert. After the Nazi occupation of France in 1940, Mendès-France became an active member of the Resistance. He was imprisoned by the Pétain government but escaped to Britain and joined the Free French under General de Gaulle. Later he was finance commissioner in Algeria. After the war he was briefly minister for economic affairs and then the French governor of the Bank for Reconstruction and Development before returning to active politics. In 1954, Mendès-France emerged as prime minister of a new government after the shattering French defeat at Di-enbienphu in Indo-China. He carried out his election promise to end the war within one month. He then negotiated the Paris Accords that integrated West Germany into the European defence system. He upset his countrymen by calling on them to drink less wine and more milk. His proposal in 1955 to grant independence to Morocco and Tunisia was defeated in the French parliament and he resigned. He served briefly under Guy Mollet in 1956 but resigned over the Algerian question. After that he remained an influential figure in the political wilderness. In 1968, he formed a new left-wing group, the Parti Socialiste Unifié.

   Mendès-France was a staunch supporter of the Zionist movement and of the State of Israel. He attacked De Gaulle and his party for the swing to a pro-Arab and anti-Israel policy. Among his many books on political and economic subjects, two published in English were The Pursuit of Freedom (1956) and A Modern French Republic (1963).