Jacques-Yves Cousteau: rumors and slanders continue

A few days ago, Yves Paccalet, former companion of adventures of Cousteau published a mood post on his site. We wanted to share it with you.

by Yves Paccalet

“I expected it, this has been going on for over forty years. Four decades and more that I hear or read the same rumors or the same slanders about Jacques-Yves Cousteau! My recent paper about the biopic dedicated to the commander woke them up ...

The eighteen years I spent with the Pasha de la Calypso, at work and on a mission, have obviously enabled me to gauge and judge the man. Of course, no one is perfect: the authors or propagators of slander less than anyone! But I will be granted that I would never have co-authored books, nor worked so intensely and for so long, with a “eugenicist”, a “Nazi” or a “child murderer”!

Yves Paccalet with Jacques-Yves Cousteau

The first calumny that I hear (or rather that I hear it again for the ninth time) consists in asserting that, during the Second World War, Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a collaborator, a far-right ideologue, a companion of infamy of the Nazis. The problem is that this description is correct, except that it corresponds, not to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, but to his older brother, Pierre-Antoine, who was indeed, with Robert Brasillach, Lucien Rebatet, Drieu La Rochelle and d others, a major fascist ideologue, and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “I am everywhere”.

At the end of the war, Pierre-Antoine Cousteau was condemned to death for acts of collaboration; his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he soon died of illness. Very different was the attitude of Jacques-Yves Cousteau during the occupation: the one who was not yet the “commander” was awarded the Medal of the Resistance. No one is responsible ad vitam aeternam writings, acts or delusions of other members of his family. I advise slanderers who, voluntarily or not, confuse the Cousteau brothers, not to mix Cain and Abel.

The lie of eugenics

Another calumny: as an environmentalist, Jacques-Yves Cousteau would have embodied a kind of heartless and senseless radical who, to “save the planet”, would have recommended to exterminate half of the human population, at the very least to adopt radical solutions to contain the global demographic explosion.

One of those who picked up and propagated this lie is none other than Luc Ferry: in his anti-ecological essay “The New Ecological Order”, published in 1992. The philosopher (here, in a bad role) truncates a quote journalistic (or resumes it without verifying that it has been cut). During this interview, given in a press conference I attended, Cousteau said in fact that the Earth can feed without problem, and for a long time, 500 million to 1 billion humans, but that beyond, our species draws on capital and is exposed to the worst troubles. To resolve the population issue, adds the commander, we can immediately decide to eliminate a few billion people ...

What neither Luc Ferry nor the other propagators of slander specify is that this assertion is made in the tone of black humor. The truncated part of the reasoning comes next: to get out of this, we need wisdom. We must, of course, control our demography, but neither by violence nor by eugenics: by improving the standard of living of the poorest, and above all by education. I myself have practiced black humor a lot, on these same themes (and others), in “Humanity will disappear, good riddance!” For example by advocating (in line with Jonathan Swift) that we devour our babies… There are those who understand, and the others - I mean: limited or twisted minds.

The hypocritical trap of black humor

So much for the two major slanders (fascism and eugenics) with which Cousteau has been overwhelmed for decades. We do not spare him rumors, as malicious as they are unfounded. Among the most tenacious: Cousteau was extremely wealthy. Oh no! I saw him more frequently on the brink of ruin (he mortgaged his property to sail the Calypso) than sewn in gold. Among the most insidious - because without the slightest beginning of proof: the commander was a Muslim. No, he was tolerant, period, that's all. He never converted to Islam. He was rather a free thinker. His second wife had him buried according to the Catholic rite.

I detailed all these points (and others still) in the biography of the character, which I wrote just after his death, in 1997: “Jacques-Yves Cousteau, in the ocean of life” (editions JC Lattès). The more curious can refer to this book, if it is still on sale somewhere (I suppose, on the internet).

I want to modestly conclude by observing that the clarification I have just made is neither the first nor the last. It will not prevent the repetition of calumnies or the perpetuation of rumors. It will therefore be useless, except (which seems essential to me anyway) to bring some of my readers closer to the truth of a great man. ”

source: http://www.yves-paccalet.fr/

Yves Paccalet was born in 1945, in Savoie. Philosopher, writer, journalist, naturalist, screenwriter. Philosophy studies at the Ecole normale supérieure.

Passionate about nature, he meets Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1972 and signs twenty books. He then publishes many books of nature (The Earth and Life, Sea and Life, Secrets of coral, Whales ...), literature and philosophy (The smell of the sun in the grass, wild moods). He collaborates with Terre sauvage, Géo Magazine, Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Figaro Magazine, etc., writes comics and cartoons scripts, devotes himself to the novel (L'Azur! L'Azur!) And to others. Illustrated books or literary or philosophical essays (Happiness while walking, My most beautiful walks in France, Kamchatka, the land of origins, The France of legends, The secret life of dolphins, Heal the man, heal the Earth, The School of nature, travel to the land of mountains, mysteries and legends of the sea, travel to the land of flowers, forests of legends, far south, humanity will disappear, good riddance!, travel to the land of the seas, emergency exit, Atlantis , dream and nightmare, The great novel of life ...). He is preparing new radio programs and documentary series for television.