In early 1971, de Gaulle sent a French battleship with a hoard of dollars to convert to gold at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Sorry to blow your French battleship out of the water but...

Charles de Gaulle resigned in 1969, and died in 1970. Other than that, it's a good story...

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}