 Charles de Gaulle, the grandeur of France, and a grinding six-year war in Algeria. All Algeria is divided into three forces, the Muslim natives, the French settlers, the French army. Over these, de Gaulle, hero of World War II, his job balancing the forces, restoring peace. Against him, General Raoul Salon, a waiverer, paratroop general Jacques Massoud, Jacques Soustelle, once de Gaulle's lieutenant, Pierre Lagallard, an extremist, Verrata Boss, FLN leader, Charles de Gaulle, and the six-year Algerian war. Algiers, a busy piece of metropolitan France transplanted across the Mediterranean. Frenchmen have lived and ruled here since 1830. More than one million Frenchmen in Algiers rub elbows with more than 10 million Muslims. Man on horseback, symbol of France, stands in Algiers' main square. On the surface, Muslim and Frenchmen live well together, they shop in the same stores. There are cafes on a quiet afternoon, even a milk bar. The Casbah, the Muslim quarter, locale of a thousand adventure stories, a part of the non-French past. The beaches of Algeria are just across the Mediterranean from the Riviera. The bathing suits are just as brief. The lovers just as tanned. Algiers is wild and wicked and gay and naughty. The European there always saw something wild and exotic about the southern shore of the Mediterranean. At least until the night of November 1st, 1954, when the Algerian revolt against France began. Algerian Muslims took to the hills under the banner of a new organization, the FLN. They launched attacks on the French. French patrols in the back country were ambushed and were derailed. Those smashed the villages of Muslims who opposed the FLN. Terror spread throughout Algeria. This was a nightclub, a time bomb wrecked it. The rebels in the field depended for their supplies on money raised from Algerians working in France. And so terror spread to the streets of Paris. Even late in the war, two Muslims a day died in France as collectors' exacted contributions. In Algeria, Muslims divided over whether Algeria should remain French. This village opposed the FLN. In the Casbah where several rebel groups vied for support, a secret ammunition dump exploded. At the peak of its strength in 1958, the FLN fielded an army of approximately 20,000 men. It ruled the Oris Mountains and it enforced its decisions. Over six years, blood ran. French settlers and French troops killed in the fields, killed in ambush. The youth of France, the best families, the pretenders of the throne of France watched his son buried with full military honors. No honors at all for Muslim victims of the FLN. 300 men and boys killed in one Algerian village. They supported the MNA, another Algerian independence movement. Even the major combat strength of the French army was thrown into Algeria. 400,000 men with all the weapons of modern war. The army had guns and planes and tanks, but it rarely had anyone to fight. It hunted fleas on a bare skin rug with a baseball bat. More often than not, French troops arrived at a village only after the rebels had left it smoking. As the French troops moved up from one side, the rebels moved out the other. Finally, the French took drastic measures. The rebels had the backing of many fellow Muslims. They moved unnoticed in the midst of the civilian population. So the French moved the civilian population. Whole villages were rounded up and transported to camps where the French army could better supervise them. A strange war. Rebels showed their power in the cities by ordering general strikes. Rebels were ordered not to work. Casbah shops were shut tight. So the French army opened them for business. But in the last two years of the long struggle, the tide turned. Saturation offensives by the French cut the power of the rebel National Liberation Army. Many rebels were captured or gave up. Their morale fell. Those forces still in the mountains scattered into bands no larger than platoons. The war went on. Rebel dead, 150,000. Civilian dead, the same number. French losses, 10,000 men. Even on a relatively calm day, more than 25 men died in Algeria fighting on one side or the other or just getting caught in the crossfire. In Algiers itself, the third force was felt. In 1956, the French settlers attacked Guy Mollet, Premier of France, when he laid a wreath at the monument to Algerian war dead. They feared Mollet would negotiate a peace with the rebels that would cost them all they had. They called him a traitor. Then it became apparent that governments of France were made and unmade in the streets of Algiers. One politician after another was found wanting. And when Pierre Flamelin was named Premier, Algeria broke into open revolt. The settlers defied the Paris government and called for Charles de Gaulle to assume power. On May 13, 1958, the settlers marched on government house in Algiers. It was then that the army under Salon's leadership wavered. After first resisting, it withdrew and let the settlers have their day. The Air Force flew de Gaulle's cross of Lorraine. Jacques Sustel assumed leadership of the uprising. Vibes Sustel, he was joined by Salon, who had now gone completely over to the settlers. They set up the Committee of Public Safety, which would rule Algiers until de Gaulle came to power. Aligned with him was the paratroop hero Jacques Massoud. De Gaulle, de Gaulle shouted the crowds. Algeria is French. De Gaulle to power, de Gaulle to power. The same cry rang out in Paris. That wing elements marched down the Champs Elysees, demanding that de Gaulle be called to the capital. For days, the National Assembly searched for a new leader, someone besides de Gaulle. And for days and nights, the marchers demonstrated. The marchers marched, the deputies searched, and the police cracked heads. On June 1, it was all settled. L'em lance stepped out and in his place, de Gaulle. De Gaulle appeared in the Assembly to announce his program. He would change the French Constitution, and he would end the Algerian war. The Assembly applauded. Then de Gaulle flew to Algiers to greet the men who had brought him to power. Salon, Sustel, Massoud. For all of them, it was a moment of triumph. Never again would de Gaulle stand so high in the estimation of all the Algerian people as he did at this minute. The sons of Algeria salute de Gaulle. He had everything, even ticker tape. In his first speech to the Algerians, de Gaulle began to lose favor. In the circumstances, he was moderate. Nowhere did he mention that Algeria was French. The war is fratricide, he said. He, de Gaulle, would lead them to a reconciliation. There were plenty of heroes that day. Back in France, de Gaulle faced two tests. He offered the voters two proposals. One, he said, de Gaulle would lead them to a reconciliation. He said, de Gaulle would lead them to a reconciliation. De Gaulle faced two tests. He offered the voters two proposals. One, a new constitution to establish the Fifth Republic. The second, his own name as candidate for the presidency of the new government. There was no contest. The new constitution was approved and de Gaulle swept into office. He received more than 80% of the vote. De Gaulle assumed the appendages and prerogatives of his new office. De Gaulle went on television to spell out his program. The most interested spectators, the French settlers in Algeria. They were bitterly disappointed. De Gaulle offered independence to all of France's colonies in Africa, except Algiers. But he did not say, Algeria was part of France. Next, de Gaulle ordered his army officers to get out of Algerian politics. He recalled Salon. General Salon said farewell to his troops. The settlers demanded he stay. But Salon left. The same crowd turned on de Gaulle's premiere Michel de Bray at a public ceremony. They boo him. Then de Gaulle ordered Massoud out of Algeria and once again the settlers revolted. Under the leadership of Pierre Lagallard, they went to the barricades. At first the army, especially Massoud's paratroopers, sympathized with the settlers. Provisions came in freely. Then fresh troops arrived. Under specific orders from de Gaulle, they forced the rebels from the barricades. Lagallard walked out, head high, still the hero of the settlers. In November 1960, the war began its seventh year. Memorial services marked the anniversary and even in the churchyard, the terror was felt. Pro-Gaullist and anti-Gaullist battled at the university and de Gaulle for the first time talked of an Algerian republic and called for a vote on his Algeria program. December 9th, 1960, de Gaulle arrived in Algeria to campaign for a yes vote in his referendum. He would campaign in the back country. In Algiers, the settlers marked his visit with a parade. The shout of de Gaulle to power were now de Gaulle to the gallows. Black helmeted security police were caught in the middle of a ring around the rosy. The police charged the demonstrators. The demonstrators threw stones at the police. Back and forth they chased each other, ever ending round of violence. Bitter, crushing, endless violence. The police switched to new weapons, tear gas bombs and concussion grenades. When things got too hot on the main streets, the demonstrators retreated down narrow side alleys. When the police went down the alleys, the demonstrators reappeared on the boulevards. Tear gas bombs got both demonstrators and spectators. All was imperturbable. He avoided the big cities. He went through the countryside disregarding his own security officers to shake every hand in sight. In Algiers, the police relinquished their battle to the army. The crowd greeted the army as saviors, hoisting soldiers on shoulders they paraded down the streets. They were sure the army would stand aside as it had done the year before. The students started building barricades. This time it was different. The troops moved right in. Stones were not much help against tanks. The soldiers took the barricades. They drove the demonstrators from the streets. Some soldiers were hurt and some bystanders wound up in the hospital. But it appeared that the demonstrations had ended without severe damage. De Gaulle, too, appeared to be winning his battle. For every French settler who shouted, Algeria is French. Over a dozen Muslims to grab his hand and shout, leave De Gaulle. On Saturday, December 10, 1960, the picture changed. The Muslims of the Casbah, until then outwardly docile, unfurled their colors. Their colors were red, white, and green. The colors of the National Liberation Front, the FLN. They spilled out of the Muslim quarter into the French city, shouting FLN slogans and singing FLN songs. They paused long enough to burn a dozen cars, but mostly they proclaimed their allegiance to the FLN and to the provisional government of Algeria, the GPRA. As the Muslims got out of hand, cracked paratroop regiments were brought into the city from the front lines. The Muslims hated the paratroops with a special passion, and the feeling was reciprocated. The roundup began. The young man at the end wants to open his coat to show a bloody wound in his side. The officer objects. Many Muslims were arrested. The settlers in Algiers had discovered anew their dependence on the French army. For the first time, the Muslims had looted and burned parts of modern Algiers. Cars were burned, so were human beings. Some so badly they could not be identified as French or Muslim. The soldiers had fired on the Muslim mob. At least 61 Muslims were killed by the paratroopers alone, and smoke hung over the city. Scarcely had the smoke of battle cleared before posters urging a yes vote appeared in Algiers. Vote yes for Algiers, for peace and for de Gaulle. But the French settlers said a yes vote meant handing Algeria over to the Muslims at the end of their life there. They organized the opposition, distributed their own literature, posted their own hand-bills, defaced those of de Gaulle. De Gaulle stacked all his eminence on the line. He made it clear that he would take a no vote as a signal to resign. Every Frenchman was made to understand this was something personal between himself and Le Gros and Charlie. I must call your attention to the fact that everybody will take a direct personal responsibility in this. We have here without doubts one of the great events of our history. This is true first of all because the Algerian war is in itself a life and death matter. The vote for the project is to want France to win peace and reason in Algeria, for Algeria, and with Algeria. High in the mountains, 100 women and 15 men gather outside a concrete polling place. Brought there by the army, they voted for de Gaulle. French men and French women you know that it is to me you are going to reply. I must have national support, a majority proportionate to the issue. In the cities of Algeria the military was ready to protect the Muslim voters but the Muslims did not come to the polls. That is why I turn to you above all intermediaries. In truth, this issue and who does not know it is between each one of you and myself. Said a de Gaulle opponent, if the army brings them to the polls, they vote for France. If the FLN brings them, they'll vote for the FLN. If nobody brings them, they won't vote at all. Most Muslims didn't vote. Those that did voted for de Gaulle. The French settlers voted an almost unanimous no. But in France de Gaulle got an overwhelming yes. French men, French women, everything is simple and clear. A sincere and massive yes is what I ask from you on behalf of France. Charles de Gaulle got his sincere and massive yes on behalf of France. The people of France were disposed to continue him as the repository of their glory. Once again, the grandeur of France and the six-year war rested with Charles de Gaulle against him many men. Salon, Marceau, Sustelle, L'Aguillade, Verrata Basse. But against them, Charles de Gaulle.