REBELLIOUS PATRIOT

The man who defied the French government and proclaimed Algiers in revolt last week was a brave and tormented paratroop general named Jacques-Emile-Charles-Marie Massn:

Early Life. Born May 5, 1908 at Chalons-sur-Marne, the son of an artillery officer. Graduated from Saint-Cyr. France's West Point, in 1930, was posted to the colonial infantry in French Equatorial Africa.

World War II. On the day France surrendered to the Nazis in 1940, Jacques Massu, still a lieutenant commanding a fort in the Sahara scribbled a "rude French word'' in his diary and beneath it the pledge: "Nous vainerons" (We shall win). Hearing De Gaulle's radio appeal from London, Massu joined the Free French in Africa, was nicked in the calf by an Italian bullet in a desert battle, calmly cauterized the wound himself with a cigarette, fought on across North Africa and into France and Germany as a lieutenant colonel with General Le-clerc's famed 2nd Armored Division.

Fighting On. He has hardly ceased fighting since. He served in Indo-China for two years, considered establishing a semimilitary colony of demobilized soldiers there (the way soldiers had settled in Algeria a century before), but instead returned to North Africa to train paratroop commandos, built up an elite corps which worshiped him as "le Pere des Paras" (the Father of the Paratroopers). Led the French paratroop landings in the short-lived Suez campaign in November 1956, became embittered that a political decision to halt the invasion wiped out his rapid gains.

Men in Berets. In January 1957, with the Algerian rebellion in full tilt and the capital city terrorized by bomb attacks, Massu was named Military Commander of Algiers. With 20,000 paratroopers, spearheaded by his own loth Parachute Division, he directed the cleanup of terrorists with thudding thoroughness and violence. He came under fire in France for the "police state" operations of his network of 1,500 block informants, and the torture methods admittedly used by his men on captured Moslems.

But for his "victory of Algiers" Massu became a hero to the 1,000,000 European settlers in Algeria, and his paratroopers -and their alumni, in veterans organizations in both France and Algeria -became a rallying point for the right wing in France. Veterans proudly wore the distinctive berets of their old regiments -red for the Colonials recruited overseas, blue for paratroopers of Metropolitan France, green for Foreign Legionnaires.

Appearance & Attitudes. Tall (6 ft. 1 in.) and wiry, capable of doing anything he asks his men to do, Massu is what the French call, in a word borrowed from the Arabs, baronder, a hardheaded fighter. His bristling mustache, gigantic nose and fiery eyes are set in a face that looks like a well-worn chopping block. For all his outward appearance of strength. Massu has frequently betrayed an inner uncertainty. Like his hero De Gaulle, he has often wondered whether to suffer under authority that he believes is wrong or to strike out alone. At Suez, irritated at the slowness of the British landings, Massu tormented himself with the idea of leapfrogging ahead against orders.

When his torture methods in Algiers aroused civil libertarians in France, Massu sank into a funk of soul searching. He tells of wanting to cooperate with the Moslems. His wife, the former Suzanne Rosenberg (an ambulance driver with Leclerc. later an army major commanding 1,200 uniformed women auxiliaries in Indo-China), runs a charity home for Moslem orphans. But Massu defends the torturing of Moslem prisoners: "Does anyone think we can wait weeks, or even days, for a bomb thrower to tell us where his arsenal is? We have to have the information that very night. Torture, torture. I have to do it. How can I avoid it?"

Last September, when French vigilantes in Algeria asked him to lead them. Massu not only refused, but reproved them: "I, Massu, I obey orders. If necessary. I'll have you shot." Last week when he took command of the junta in Algeria, Massu did not act like a Franco, eager to reconquer his homeland from an African base. Said he: "I am not a political general. I would have been glad to do without the events of last night." He was still hoping to be inspired by orders -from his old hero De Gaulle.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.