In May and June 1940 as a junior liaison officer he saw but little action, fell back with his motorised unit to Montauban and witnessed helplessly the Fall of France and the Armistice.

After joining the Free French forces as a tank platoon officer he submitted to long months of training in various Algerian camps.

He fought in Provence, Burgundy, Alsace and the Black Forest, was shot in the back in La Valette-du-Var on the road to the critical port of Toulon and was wounded on two separate engagements by hand-grenade shrapnel.

Venturing into politics he was elected député for Versailles in 1967 and held the seat until 1978, became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 1974, and retired in 1981 after a last post as ambassador to Argentina.

His son Christian has written books on WWII intelligence (Garbo; Ce que savaient les Alliés; Le Moyen-Orient pendant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale), a biography of Laurence of Arabia, Churchill et la France, a book about the lifetime relations of Winston Churchill and the French, and biographies of Ian Fleming, the inventor of James Bond, and of King Ibn Saud (2024).

Sébastien Destremau, the sailing professional who has competed internationally (Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum) is his great-nephew.