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From 1958 to 2007 and from Charles de Gaulle to — Jacques Chirac, the successive presidents often spoke about internal Resistance, its meaning and its legacy. Points in common but also many differences abound in the number (especially those of Charles de Gaulle and François Mitterrand), the place and the occasion of these speeches. The study of this speech corpus reveals the power and continuity of the Gaullian memory grammar which survived the “minor changeover” of 1974 and even the “major changeover” of 1981. Its changes were part of the continuity of a warlike and patriotic vision of the Resistance, pillar of the permanence of the State and the Nation. As of François Mitterrand’s second seven-year term of office, his presidential speeches moved progressively towards a humanized vision of the Resistance, guarantor of the society’s founding values without any agonistic references.