# L'etat, C'est Moi: Jim Berryman crowns Charles de Gaulle, January 1963

L'etat, C'est Moi is a Jim Berryman cartoon for the Washington Evening Star dated 31 January 1963. A seated figure in a bicorne hat and a cloak lettered "De G" sits on a throne under an ermine-style robe, holding a staff topped with "RF," beneath the phrase traditionally attributed to Louis XIV.

- Home
- Archive
- L'etat, C'est Moi: Jim Berryman crowns Charles de Gaulle, January 1963

      L'etat, C'est Moi

      L'etat, C'est Moi: Jim Berryman crowns Charles de Gaulle, January 1963
      Jim Berryman's January 1963 Washington Star cartoon seats "De G" on a throne with an "RF" staff under the title L'etat, c'est moi. NAID 5743296.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Name-calling
      DateJanuary 31, 1963Made byWashington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)MediumCartoonCountryUnited StatesRegimeKennedy AdministrationNARANAID 5730852; NAID 5743296SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852) , retrieved October 3, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, NAID 5743296 (NAID 5743296).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  L'etat, C'est Moi is a Jim Berryman cartoon for the Washington Evening Star dated 31 January 1963. A seated figure in a bicorne hat and a cloak lettered "De G" sits on a throne under an ermine-style robe, holding a staff topped with "RF," beneath the phrase traditionally attributed to Louis XIV.

## The drawing

The archive describes a seated man in a bicorne hat, epaulettes and a cloak lettered "De G." An ermine-style robe is draped over his throne. He holds a staff topped with the letters "RF," and he gazes upward. The title supplies the caption: "L'etat, c'est moi," "I am the state," the phrase traditionally attributed to Louis XIV. FRAME reads the target as Charles de Gaulle.

RF

De G

JIM BERRYMAN WASHINGTON STAR

Words on the cartoon, FRAME transcription, read from the image and not independently checked. Washington Evening Star, 31 January 1963. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 5743296.

## How the joke works

The method is a costume change. The figure wears a monarch's regalia and sits on a throne, and the letters "RF" end up on top of his scepter. FRAME's tag is name-calling by royal caricature: the cartoon's argument is that de Gaulle governs like a king.

The drawing gives no reason for the charge. There is no policy named, no event, no quotation from de Gaulle. A reader who already thought him high-handed would nod; a reader who did not is offered a costume, not evidence. That is the limit of the form.

The underlying complaint is a serious one in any republic. A head of state who identifies the state with himself is the danger a constitution of checks and balances exists to prevent. Applying that standard to a foreign ally is fair, and it is a standard American presidents can be held to as well. What prompted it on this date is not in the record.

The archive files it with themes of security and elections, and with Berryman's other cartoons in the Senate's holdings. On this site, see his Easter Bunny cartoon on Kennedy's spending, A Flower Tries to Grow in Birmingham and Let Me Through!.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, L'etat, C'est Moi, 31 January 1963. Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star.

- U.S. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), item NAID 5743296, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. FRAME records the rights as public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/berryman-letat-cest-moi-1963/