The Fate Of France As De Gaulle Comes To Power

As de Gaulle Comes to Power…

For months, it is now clear, there had been a conspiracy to overthrow the French republic. Organized by extreme rightists and semi-fascists in France and Algeria, this conspiracy soon entangled a good many army officers and drew upon the skills of Robert Lacoste, the infamous Socialist who had been Resident Minister of Algeria and an organizer of brutal repressions against the Moslem population.

Whether de Gaulle was an active participant, we do not know. Probably, in his Pilate-like fashion, he held aloof, merely intimating that he was “available.” In the two weeks between the Algerian rising and his investiture as Premier, one word of reproval from de Gaulle would have dealt a severe, perhaps fatal, blow to the colons and the generals. That word did not come.

Even at the moment of his greatest triumph, de Gaulle elicited no marked enthusiasm from the National Assembly or the French people. The A...