The Pep Talk

Heading off for a tour of French army bases in Algeria, Charles de Gaulle kept his itinerary secret, took with him only a handful of aides and a single reporter--Agence France-Presse's Jean Mauriac, son of Novelist Franc,ois Mauriac. In Paris, wags cracked that the general was traveling more like a spy than a head of state, and in Algiers, disgruntled European settlers jeered that he was afraid to face them. But within 24 hours, diehard French officers in Algeria were gleefully proclaiming: "We've got him!"

Traveling across Algeria's rugged countryside in helicopters and observation planes, De Gaulle ate in brigade messes, insisted on delivering a pep talk to the officers of each unit he visited. Over and over again, according to both Reporter Mauriac and army spokesmen, De Gaulle plugged a single theme: "Separated from France, Algeria would not be able to live; on the other hand, the Algerian Moslems cannot be Frenchmen from Provence or Brittany . . . The Algerian problem will not be solved for a long, long time . . . It will not be solved before the final victory brought about by French arms . . . France is determined to stay in Algeria . . . She must not leave. She will stay."

In Paris, downcast moderates puzzled over the apparent direct contradiction between these statements and De Gaulle's previous insistence that the Algerians must be allowed to choose by free vote anything from complete integration with France to complete independence. Socialist Leader Guy Mollet challenged the accuracy of Mauriac's stories, and right-wing Deputy Colonel Jean Robert ("Leather Nose") Thomazo incredulously remarked: "I was expelled from the [Gaullist] Party for saying less."

But nobody in authority (particularly in the army, delighted by the new stand) challenged Reporter Mauriac's ears. The general had long ago warned: "If the Algerian rebels persist in behaving stupidly, I will wage war." The recent equivocal response of rebel "Premier" Ferhat Abbas to De Gaulle's cease-fire offers is said to have convinced De Gaulle that the rebels are not interested in ending the Algerian war, but only in shifting blame for its continuance onto him. To unhappy Parisians, peace in Algeria seemed farther away than at any time since De Gaulle took power.

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