The best victories are the ones so well prepared that they come easy and seem effortless. Such a victory did Charles de Gaulle win last week. Within one month of earning his overwhelming election mandate, he used that triumph to put himself clearly on top, and clearly in charge, both in France and in Algeria.
De Gaulle's triumph, conducted for the most part in discreet silences and behind the scenes, was nonetheless the climax of an epic political struggle. In Algeria, De Gaulle's first objective had always been to break the illicit power of the Committees of Public Safetythe hard-nosed,...
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