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Salan has what other pied-noir leaders lacked—executive ability and discipline. Though he has the gift of phrasemaking ("The Mediterranean crosses France the way the Seine crosses Paris"), he is no mere rabble-rouser.
The Organization. At Salan's signal, pied-noir demonstrators rush from their homes shouting "De Gaulle to the gallows!" and hammer out on dishpans the deafening rhythm of "Al-gé-rie Fran-caise!" Salan's nod is sufficient to explode plastic bombs* under the bed of a Gaullist security chief in Oran or on the doorstep of a police inspector in Algiers. After each deed, Salan's men boast: "The S.A.O. strikes when it wants, how it wants, where it wants!"
The S.A.O. headquarters staff consists of Salan and 20 to 30 intimates. It has set up three Algerian departments, which, in turn, are subdivided into zones, sectors and subsectors. On paper there are some 77 subsectors—mostly in the cities, for the S.A.O. has little or no support in the Moslem countryside. This framework is fleshed out with men: first, 1,000 to 2,000 terrorists, gunmen and bomb specialists; next, up to 20,000 block leaders, spies, fund raisers and agitators. At bottom is a reserve of some 100,000 former militiamen who were disbanded in 1960 by De Gaulle as untrustworthy allies.
Chief of operations for Salan is Colonel Yves Godard, a paratrooper who escaped from a Nazi prison camp on his third try, fought as a Resistance leader in France, and served with distinction in Indo-China and Algeria. Since New Year's Day, when Godard's terror squads swung into coordinated action 347 people have been killed in Algeria and 624 wounded. In his most impressive exploit to date, Godard smashed the special 100-man anti-S.A.O. commando unit that was sent from Paris to go after Godard with his own terror tactics. Last October, Godard was picked up in an Algiers street for carrying false identity papers. At the central police station, he privately told a top cop: "I know you and you know me. I'm Colonel Godard. I appeal to you as a Frenchman and a patriot to let me go." The policeman did.
Triple Fence. Not only the police but practically all Europeans will hide or help S.A.O. terrorists. The few who are brought to trial are quickly freed by intimidated judges. The police cannot find Raoul Salan, but newsmen have no difficulty in arranging meetings; and three months ago, Salan—with hair dyed black and a new mustache—gave a TV interview to a U.S. broadcasting team without police interference. Salan's whereabouts are shrouded in mystery: on the same day he has been reported in Belgium and at Algiers' Otomatic cafe, an S.A.O. hangout. When he first went underground, he was hidden in the fertile Mitidja plain south of Algiers, whose well-to-do pied-noir farmers are pro-S.A.O.
Officials loyal to De Gaulle lead a more hunted life