ABSTRACT
France's citizens largely agreed with Charles de Gaulle on the need for change in France's life, but their vision of modernity was very different from his. The end of the Algerian struggle was a relief, and they hoped to be able to enjoy the benefits that the country's increasing economic prosperity promised. The monopoly on nuclear weapons that the United States had possessed at the end of the Second World War had already been broken by the Soviets, who exploded their first atom bomb in 1949. De Gaulle's nationalism had made the other western European governments fear for the future of that organization when he came to power in 1958, but the Common Market served his designs for modernization of the French economy too well for him to abandon it. The Gaullist concept of politics involved not only establishment of an independent foreign policy, but also creation of a government capable of acting decisively in domestic affairs.
