For months the big question has been: Would the French army in Algeria stay loyal to De Gaulle against the Secret Army Organization? As of last week, the answer was a resounding yes, pronounced by bullets.
In one tumultuous night, the S.A.O. strategy went completely off the rails. Raoul Salan and his S.A.O. staff planned to goad the Moslems with indiscriminate terror attacks until they lashed back with mob action against the Europeans. According to S.A.O. theory, once both sides were locked in racial war the French army would not hesitate to intervene on the side of the European pieds-noirs....
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