Georges Bidault Georges - Augustin Bidault ( ; 5 October 189927 January 1983 ) was a French politician . During World War II , he was active in the French Resistance . After the war , he served as foreign minister and prime minister on several occasions before he joined the Organisation armée secrète . Biography . Early life . Bidault was born in Moulins , Allier . He studied in the Sorbonne and became a college history teacher . In 1932 he helped to found the Catholic Association of French Youth and the left - wing anti - fascist newspaper " l ' Aube " . He had a column in the paper and , among other things , protested against the Munich Agreement in 1938 . World War II . After the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the French army . He was captured during the Fall of France and was briefly imprisoned . After his release in July 1941 , he became a teacher at the Lycée du Parc in Lyon and joined the " Liberté " group of French Resistance that eventually merged with " Combat " . Jean Moulin recruited him to organize an underground press and the " Combat " underground newspaper . In his work in the resistance , he was helped by his private administrative assistant Laure Diebold . Bidault participated in the forming of the Conseil National de la Résistance and , after the Gestapo captured Moulin , he became its new chairman . In 1944 he formed a Resistance Charter that recommended an extensive post - war reform program . After the liberation of Paris he represented the Resistance in the victory parade . Charles de Gaulle appointed him as a foreign minister of his provisional government in 25 August . He was the founder of the Mouvement Républicain Populaire ( MRP ) . He was head of the French delegation to the San Francisco Conference , which established the UN , from April to June 1945 . At the conference , France succeeded in gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council . Fourth Republic . After World War II , Bidault served as foreign minister in Félix Gouin ' s provisional government in 1946 . On 19 June 1946 the National Constituent Assembly elected him as president of the provisional government . His government , formed on 15 June , was composed of socialists , communists and Bidault ' s own MRP . In social policy , Bidault ' s government was notable for passing important pension and workman ’ s compensation laws . Bidault later became foreign minister once again . The government held elections to the National Assembly on 29 November after which Bidault resigned . His successor was Léon Blum . Bidault served in various French governments , first as foreign minister under Paul Ramadier and Robert Schuman . In April 1947 he supported Ramadier ' s decision to expel the Communists from his government . Bidault had recently been to Moscow and was disturbed by the Soviet regime ; he believed an agreement with Stalin was impossible . In 1949 he became the President of the Council of Ministers ( prime minister ) but his government lasted only 8 months . In Henri Queuille ' s governments in 1950 – 1951 he held the office of Vice - president of the Council and under Rene Pleven and Edgar Faure also the post of defense minister . In 1952 Bidault became an honorary president of MRP . On 1 June 1953 President Vincent Auriol assigned him to form his own government but the National Assembly refused to give him the official mandate at 10 June . In 1953 Bidault became a presidential candidate but withdrew after the second round . Bidault was foreign minister during the siege of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu from March to May 1954 . He protested to the Red Cross that the Viet Minh were shooting at clearly marked French medical evacuation flights , killing some of the evacuees . The ongoing fighting in Indochina had exhausted him ; he was described by American secretary of state John Foster Dulles as " a deeply harassed man " and later by a historian as " on the verge of a nervous breakdown " . Caught between his desires to end the war and to maintain the integrity of France ' s colonies , he vacillated between pressing the war , perhaps by asking the Americans for air support , or seeking a negotiated solution . Bidault stated that John Foster Dulles ( then Secretary of State of United States ) offered France two atomic bombs in 1954 . Fifth Republic . In April 1958 Bidault again became prime minister but did not form a cabinet and had a hand in forming the conservative Christian Democratic Movement . He also supported De Gaulle ' s presidency after the outbreak of the Algerian War of Independence . In 1961 Bidault became President of the Executive Council of the Rally for French Algeria and opposed De Gaulle ' s policy of Algerian independence . He established his own National Resistance Council within the far - right paramilitary organization Organisation de L ' Armée Secrète ( OAS ) . In June 1962 he was accused of conspiring against the state and stripped of his parliamentary immunity . He left for exile in Brazil . In 1967 he moved to Belgium and in 1968 returned to France after benefiting from an amnesty . In his political memoirs , Bidault states that he was never involved in the OAS , and is not qualified to give any precise information about its deeds . Bidault died of a stroke in Cambo - les - Bains in January 1983 . Governments . Second ministry ( 28 October 1949 – 7 February 1950 ) . Changes :