Charles de Gaulle's top aides were on the phone to Algiers a dozen times a day. At each call their gloom deepened; De Gaulle's grand design for Algeria had struck a deep snag.
Buoyed by the astonishing Moslem turnout (nearly 3,000,000) and the whopping 96% yes vote for his new constitution in September's referendum, De Gaulle had offered the Moslems 46 of the 67 seats from Algeria in the new National Assembly in Paris. He hoped that among the Moslems chosen in this month's Assembly elections he would find interlocuteursmoderate Moslems who were neither servile beni-oui-ouis (yes men to the...