France Honours de GaullePresident Chirac has opened a new museum dedicated to World War II to mark the 60th anniversary of General de Gaulle's wartime appeal to the French nation.The general's radio address, broadcast from BBC studios in London, called on France to resist the Nazi occupation and went down in history as marking the start of the country's wartime resistance. The new museum is located in Les Invalides, the huge complex in the centre of Paris which houses France's military museum as well as Napoleon's tomb. Opening the museum on Sunday afternoon, President Chirac said it was important for the French people to view the past lucidly, dispassionately, but without complacency. General de Gaulle's appeal is still alive, he said, 18 June has a place in the history of France. Charles de Gaulle was a young and unknown exiled under-secretary for war when he broadcast his message from the BBC World Service studios in London. In it he called for all French people to rise up and fight the Nazi occupiers. |
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