Maurice Couve de Murville
(24 January 1907 24 December 1999) was a French
diplomat and politician
who was Minister of
Foreign Affairs from 1958 to 1968 and Prime Minister from 1968 to 1969
under the presidency of General de
Gaulle.
He was
born Maurice Couve (his father acquired the title
de Murville in 1925) in Reims
and died in
Paris
at the age of 92 from natural causes.
Life
Couve de Murville joined the corps of finance inspectors in 1930,
and in 1940 became Director of External Finances of the
Vichy régime, in which capacity he sat at the
armistice council of Wiesbaden.
In March 1943, after the American landing in North
Africa
, he was one of the few senior officials of Vichy to
join the Free French.
He left
for Algiers
, via
Spain
, where he joined General Henri Giraud. On 7 June 1943, he was
named commissioner of finance of the French Committee of National
Liberation (CFLN). A few months later, he joined General Charles de
Gaulle. In February 1945, he became member of the Provisional
Government of the French Republic (GPRF) with the rank of
ambassador attached to the Italian
government.
After the
war, he occupied several posts as French Ambassador, in Cairo
(1950 to
1954), at NATO
(1954), in
Washington
(1955 to 1956) and in Bonn
(1956 to
1958). When General de Gaulle returned to power in 1958, he
became
Foreign Minister, a post
which he retained for ten years until the reshuffle which followed
the events of
May 1968 where he
replaced
Finance minister Michel Debré, keeping this post only a
short time: very soon after the elections, he became a transitional
Prime Minister, replacing
Georges
Pompidou. The following year he was succeeded by
Jacques Chaban-Delmas.
Couve de
Murville continued his political career first as a UDR
deputy, then RPR deputy for
Paris until 1986, then as a senator
until
1995.
Archbishop
Maurice Noël Léon Couve de Murville, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop Emeritus of Birmingham
(1929-2007), was his cousin.
Published works
- Une politique étrangère, 1958-1969 (1971). ISBN
unknown
- Le Monde en face (1989). ISBN 2-259-02222-7
Political career
Governmental functions
Prime minister : 1968-1969
Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1958-1968
Minister of Economy and Finance : May-July 1968
Electoral mandates
Member of
the National Assembly of
France for Paris : June 1968
(He leaves his seat because he is minister) /
1973-1986
Senator of
Paris : 1986-1995
Couve de Murville's Government
The cabinet from 10 July 1968 - 22 June 1969
On 28 April 1969 -
Jean-Marcel
Jeanneney succeeded Capitant as interim Minister of
Justice.
References
- Obituary: Maurice Couve de Murville,
The
Independent, 27 December 1999
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