I often hear that FDR was not very fond of Charles de Gaulle, what were his reasons for feeling this way? Was the feeling mutual?

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I can imagine that de Gaulle’s ego played a factor, but were there any specific reason the two men could not get along?

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One major reason was because the Americans didn’t really recognize Free France as the “real” France. They were more willing to recognize Vichy France as the “real” France. Even when FDR started coming around to the idea they instead wanted to recognize Henri Giraud as the Free French Leader instead. In the end he only really agreed to recognize de Gaulle because everyone one else was. De Gaulle this had to try all the harder to be recognized, this annoying FDR more.

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Goog points, moreover the Gaulle was a selfmade upstart who did a marvellous job at becoming the father of the 5th Republic.

Like the other continental powers he was busy protecting his national interest. He wasn’t very democratic as France dropped on the Polity IV index. But he was the hero a reunited France needed and made it clear that France was one of the victors and NOT Vichy.

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Hi,
By the way for those who don’t know the polity IV research it is a very good scholarly site to compare how countries rank an the Authority index.

France here:
http://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/frn2.htm

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One big reason for the tension between De Gaulle and FDR was the major difference between their postwar visions. De Gaulle envisioned a France that was a major global power that, although allied with the US, did not necessarily follow its foreign policy.

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DeGaulle’s Vietnam stance decades later would prove to be a major example of his different political strategy.

DeGaulle preferred to use the influence of French Culture to convince people to promote his political ideas. By converting people all around the world to French Culture and French things, France would thrive and gain power.

America preferred to encourage Capitalism first to win the Cold War economically: you still see this contrast with the French in Lebanon today. Macron is very much like De Gaulle in foreign policy.

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