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Long Suffering. Despite nearly ten years in French prisons, Bourguiba has been a devoted friend of France, and the West has long considered him the Arab world's most reasonable statesman. He allowed F.L.N. troops to quarter and train in Tunisia, but to their leaders he repeatedly counseled moderation and faith in General de Gaulle. It was Bourguiba who most notably, though unsuccessfully, urged the F.L.N. to accept the French ceasefire. But the Bizerte base was an irritant, particularly as the French no longer considered it essential, and have been gradually reducing its garrison.
Still, Bourguiba displayed enormous forbearance. In January 1960, when De Gaulle was fighting to survive the Algerian Revolt of the Barricades, Bourguiba graciously called off a scheduled "Bizerte Protest Week." As a reward, Bourguiba was invited to Paris last February, welcomed with pomp, and permitted to confer with De Gaulle. He came away glowing, convinced that the general was finally ready to negotiate withdrawal from Bizerte. Hearing nothing further, he suspected the worst; and the airstrip work confirmed his suspicions. Three weeks ago, Bourguiba sent his chief aide to Paris bearing a personal letter for De Gaulle.
"I have struggled for 30 years for free cooperation between Tunisia and France," he reminded De Gaulle, but pointed to "serious evidence that French authorities mean to maintain the status quo and even aggravate it. I am compelled to inform you of our firm and irrevocable decision to put an end to this situation."
Loyalty Spurned. Frostily, De Gaulle replied that France would not negotiate under threats. Instead of backing down in humiliation, Bourguiba gave France 24 hours to talk terms. From the Tunisian Parliament he won unanimous approval for a blockade of the Bizerte naval base. For good measure, he put in his claim for a piece of the Sahara. Tunisia is a small country, with only 3.7 million people, compared with Algeria's ten million and Morocco's 11.6 million. But Bourguiba was anxious for his share, fearing that France might be getting ready to give the whole thing to the F.L.N. Said Bourguiba: "It is not possible for Tunisia to give up its rights over the Sahara, even if there were no oil at Edjele . . . We hope that our rights, our good will and our sincere desire for cooperation will prevent an armed conflict with France and. more understandably, with our Algerian brothers." With that, he dispatched a column of volunteers to plant the Tunisian flag at Sahara Marker 233. 28 miles south of the present border enforced by the French.
Momentary Shock. In the wake of the savage French retaliation, Bourguiba was momentarily shocked into silence. Then he rallied, charged that the French refusal to hand over Bizerte was "dictated by a persistence of colonial mentality and by De Gaulle's own obsession with grandeur." He ordered the French oil pipeline terminus at La Skhira seized, and announced that Tunisia would fight on, "even if the whole world turns against us." Volunteers from "friendly countries" were welcome, said Bourguiba, including those offered by Egypt's Nasser, his old archenemy. His deputy, Bahi Ladgham, grimly summoned U.S. Ambassador Walter Walmsley and declared: "Now is your chance to prove how anticolonialist you are."