Charles de Gaulle visited Homeland

In January 1964, France was, after the UK, among the first of the major Western powers to open diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). By recognizing Mao Zedong’s government, de Gaulle signaled to both Washington and Moscow that France intended to deploy an independent foreign policy. The move was criticized in the United States as it seemed to seriously damage US policy of containment in Asia. De Gaulle justified this action by “the weight of evidence and reason”, considering that China’s demographic weight and geographic extent put it in a position to have a global leading role. De Gaulle also used this opportunity to arouse rivalry between the USSR and China. In September 1966, in a famous speech in Phnom Penh in Cambodia, he expressed France’s disapproval of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, calling for a withdrawal.