After JFK's Funeral, RFK Told Charles de Gaulle: 'It Was a Coup d'Etat'

The French president, the survivor of a right-wing assassination attempt, privately agreed with JFK's brother

Left to Right: Spouse of the President of France Yvonne de Gaulle, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, President of France Charles de Gaulle, and U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Paris, in a still from the film, “The Task Begun: President Kennedy in Europe, 1961: 30 May-5 June” (Credit: JFK Library)

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One of the most compelling stories that has emerged from the new JFK files in recent years is the story of what French president Charles de Gaulle thought of the assassination of his friend and rival John F. Kennedy.

They began as antagonists. Kennedy, an upstart liberal senator from Massachusetts, alienated de Gaulle with a brave 1957 speech calling for Algerian independence. De Gaulle thought the French colony was no business of an immature American senator young enough to be his son. But when Kennedy was elected president, de Gaulle felt JFK listened to his advice about avoiding a ground war in Southeast Asia. He was deeply impressed by Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.

During the crisis de Gaulle declined to examine the photographs presented to him by Kennedy’s envoy, former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, saying that he “believed the American President by his words and didn‘t need any proof,” and adding that France would stand by the United States in case of war. With Kennedy’s peaceful resolution of the crisis, de Gaulle felt JFK had the makings of a great statesman.

Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 left the French president believing the worst about the U.S. government. The new JFK files show why.

President Charles de Gaulle of France, saluting in light brown uniform, next to Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, right, at the funeral of President John F. Kennedy, Nov. 25, 1963. (Credit: Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock)