The third president of the French Fifth Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (born 1926) was the architect of France's economic return as one of the leading nations of the world.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was born in Koblenz, Germany on February 2, 1926, during the French occupation of the Rhineland. Most of his childhood was spent in Clermont-Ferrand, which had been his family's home for generations. Like many upper class young men of his day, Giscard (he is commonly known by the traditional family name) moved to Paris as a teenager to continue his studies at the Lycées Jeanson de Sailly and Louis-le-Grand.

World War II interrupted his studies. At the age of 16 he joined the resistance against the Germans and collaborationist Vichy government and participated in the 1944 liberation of Paris. He then joined the French army and continued in the fight against the Germans in northern...