1. Gaston Palewski, a French politician, was a close associate of Charles de Gaulle during and after World War II.
10 Facts About Gaston Palewski
1. 2.
Gaston Palewski is remembered as the lover of the English novelist Nancy Mitford, and appears in a fictionalised form in two of her novels.
3.
Gaston Palewski was in French North Africa at the time of the armistice of June 1940.
4.
Gaston Palewski became known as de Gaulle's homme de confiance, and his diplomatic skills and knowledge of the British made him invaluable to de Gaulle, who neither understood the British nor trusted them.
5.
Gaston Palewski remained director of de Gaulle's cabinet until de Gaulle's resignation as head of the Provisional Government in January 1946.
6.
Gaston Palewski then became a leading proponent of Gaullism and one of the founders of the first Gaullist party, the Rassemblement du Peuple Francais in 1947.
7.
In 1962 Gaston Palewski was appointed by Prime Minister Georges Pompidou as Minister of State in charge of Scientific Research, Atomic Energy and Space Questions, the first French minister with specific responsibility for such matters.
8.
On 1 May 1962 Gaston Palewski witnessed the French underground nuclear test codenamed "Beryl" in Algeria.
9.
Gaston Palewski believed that the leukemia which he contracted later in life was caused by this accident.
10.
Gaston Palewski took no offence at this, and when Mitford proposed to dedicate The Pursuit of Love to "The Colonel", he insisted on his real name being used.