Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970).

A magnificent letter on France and Europe. He congratulates Berl on his book *La France irréelle*, which he finds ‘lively, fast-paced and skilful’, but also ‘moving and heart-rending’. I salute your great talent and the wealth of ideas and images that you present in such fine order to the reader’s mind. On many points, I find myself in agreement with you, but not on the conclusion. What makes France unreal today, in my view, is that it has been denationalised. As for Europe, as a unity, for it to become a reality, it would have to become a nation. It may one day be so. It is not. It will only be so through its peoples and after events have led them to suffer and fight at length for one and the same cause (Renan). That has not happened. So, as far as a united Europe is concerned, there is nothing but a vanity fair of parliamentarians, the fears of politicians, and the greed of civil servants (the ‘wise men’!). The rest, all the rest, lies in the future. As for the present, France must live on, as France. I do not believe that Europe can come into being if France were to die’…