THE DOUBLE CRISIS
believe that their support of the Third Force, which will be merely
abstract in any case, is based upon a confusion between two things
that have nothing in common with each other: political liberalism
and cultural liberalism.
True liberalism in the spiritual order not only does not exclude
strength of will, but is founded on it. On the other hand, to seek
protection for freedom today through a liberal political structure–
that is to say, one which is habitually opportunistic, and thus. in
my view, tied to the nineteenth century-is pure folly. Cultural lib–
eralism leads toward the greatest possible freedom. Political liberal–
ism, of the kind which we have been discussing, leads to eternal
\
National Fronts, that is to say, to confusion. You have demonstrated
conclusively that there has never been a fair competition in an alliance
between liberals and Communists. What was true when you wrote
it seems to me even more true today.
Among my manuscripts which were destroyed by the Germau:s,
there was an essay on Colonel Lawrence. Do you know what attracted
me in this remarkable figure? In this man of action--one of the
most vigorous produced by the War of 1914- we can find, if we
accept the testimony of his letters, the very type of liberalism in the
intellectual sphere. I believe, and this may seem strange to you, that
there is developing in the world a new human type: the liberal hero.
Like all these prototypes he is a myth, but I believe that in twenty
years a great part of human ideals will orient themselves about him.
This seems as clear to me now as, in 1941, it seemed plain that the
central cultural problem of 1950 would be the first vague appearance
of an Atlantic culture.
I am not saying that Gaullism proclaims or even defends what
I have just said; but I believe that it is only among the Gaullists
that there can develop the human attitude of which the liberal hero
would be the symbol. General Leclerc was not a mere figurehead,
even to the Communists, despite what their papers said.
Symbolic types of this sort are born from the clash, at certain
moments in history, of attitudes which up to that time seemed irre–
concilable. We would scarcely have believed, in 1938, that a combi–
nation of tremendous energy, of violence, and of humanitarian con–
viction was possible. Nevertheless, that very combination appeared
in the figure of the Bolshevik. Every great form of politics which
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