Word: mend
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mendès did not say on what terms he would get peace, or what formula he would achieve for German rearmament. He simply said he would solve these two problems or get out. To a weary and politically conscious people, the appeal of this gamble was unique and overwhelming...
...eight months, Mendès worked in the underground, adopting a pipe and a mustache as a disguise, then made his way to London to join De Gaulle's Free French. He immediately applied to fly again, was trained as a navigator in the Free French bomber group. "He turned all colors before going on missions, but he always went and he volunteered when he could," says a friend. Mendès fretted about bombing France, finally concluded that if he did not do it, others would, and perhaps not aim so carefully...
...London, Mendès stayed coldly aloof from those fellow exiles who jostled and intrigued for Cabinet positions in De Gaulle's'phantom government. "They are not bad men," he confided to a friend, "but they scurry around. They scurry so much they forget France...
Unheeded Man. In time, Mendès himself became De Gaulle's Minister of National Economy, and worked out an austerity plan for the economic reconstruction of postwar France, including such severe anti-inflation measures as freezing all large bank deposits. But at a Cabinet meeting in January 1945, a majority led by Finance Minister Rene Pleven vigorously objected. After five years of occupation, the French people would not stand for a new period of austerity, they argued. "You see, my dear Mendès," said De Gaulle, "the Minister of Finance and all the experts are against...
From that day in 1945, Mendès-France remained in political isolation. Lacking political power, he served in technical positions. He represented France on the International Monetary Fund and on the U.N. Economic and Social Council. In the National Assembly, he was chairman of the finance committee. Always, in speech after speech, he warned France that the day of reckoning would come...