Jacques-Maurice Couve de Murville (French:[mɔʁiskuvdəmyʁvil,moʁ-]; 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. As foreign minister he played the leading role in the critical Franco-German treaty of cooperation in 1963, he laid the foundation for the Paris-Bonn axis that was central in building a united Europe.
He was born Maurice Couve (his father acquired the name de Murville in 1925[1]) in Reims. Maurice Couve de Murville, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham (1929–2007), was his cousin.
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 a 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 he retained for ten years until the reshuffle that followed the events of May 1968 where he replaced Finance ministerMichel 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. He died in Paris at the age of 92 from natural causes.
Political career
Governmental functions
Prime minister : 1968–1969
Minister of Foreign Affairs : 1958–1968
Minister of Economy and Finance : May–July 1968
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly 1973–1981.
Electoral mandates
Member of the National Assembly of France for Paris : June 1968 (He left his seat when he became a minister) / 1973–1986
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