One can find other examples of de Gaulle’s often startling lucidity about the future. For example, he predicted in a conversation with Peyrefitte in 1964 that Yugoslavia would not last: ‘For that there needs to be a Yugoslav nation. There isn’t. There are just bits of wood stuck together with a piece of string. That piece of string is Tito. When he is no longer there, the bits will fall apart.’19
