Nothing new had been said, not a single concession offered; yet it was as if, after an appallingly long week of perplexity and the nightmare of civil war, or fascism, here was the catharsis, the clear call to duty, that all Frenchmen had unknowingly been waiting for. Once again de Gaulle had got his timing superbly right.

SEED: Could form basis for an essay on how great leaders manufacture cathartic political moments through timing rather than new content.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1120