Clemenceau Wounded in Assassination Attempt

February 19, 2019

The would-be assassin, Cottin, pictured at the police headquarters a few days after the attempt.

February 19 1919, Paris–With Wilson on the way back to the United States and Lloyd George temporarily back in London, Clemenceau was briefly master of the Paris Peace Conference. On February 19, he left his house to meet with Balfour and Col. House. A young anarchist named Cottin jumped out and fired at his car; most of the bullets missed, but one went through his shoulder and became lodged near his lung. It did not hit any vital organs, and it was deemed too dangerous to remove, so it remained in Clemenceau’s body for the remaining ten years of his life. Clemenceau appeared to take it in stride, and that afternoon was already complaining to his doctors about his would-be assassin: “We have just won the most terrible war in history, yet here is a Frenchman who misses his target 6 out of 7 times at point-blank range. Of course this fellow must be punished for the careless use of a dangerous weapon and for poor marksmanship. I suggest that he be locked up for eight years, with intensive training in a shooting gallery.”

The crowd was less forgiving, and nearly killed Cottin at the scene; he would be sentenced to death the next month, but Clemenceau argued for it to be commuted it to ten years. After the left-wing took up his cause (comparing his sentence to the one doled out to the successful assassin of Jean Jaurès), it was reduced even further.

Clemenceau would be back at work in a week, if at a reduced schedule. Wilson, once he returned to France, believed Clemenceau was never quite the same afterwards. In the meantime, with all three major Allied leaders out of the country or convalescing, Balfour became the key player at the conference, and attempted to speed the Peace Conference’s proceedings up; the Armistice had already lasted three months and been renewed several times, with little substantive progress made.

Sources include: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919; Gregor Dallas, 1918: War and Peace.

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