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The sympathies of the U.S.. torn between big ally France and small friend Bourguiba (U.S. aid comprises 60% of the Tunisian government's budget), was as divided as its arms—which both sides are using against each other. Disregarding U.S. pleas that the dispute should be settled between themselves, Bourguiba demanded an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, where Tunisia accused France of "premeditated aggression." France's U.N. Ambassador Armand Bérard retorted that the Tunisian events were "tragic and regrettable," but that "a minor pretext was used by the government of Tunisia—some minor work, involving two or three meters of terrain to facilitate the landing of planes."
At week's end the Security Council debated the relative merits of a U.S.-British resolution urging both sides to negotiate and a U.A.R.-Liberian resolution additionally urging the speedy withdrawal of all French troops from Tunisia, finally settled on an interim resolution calling for a ceasefire. Both French and Tunisians quickly ordered their forces to comply. The battle had cost the French 13 dead, 35 wounded. The Tunisians lost more than 300, with at least 500 wounded.
Question of Ambition. Why had Bourguiba chosen this moment for his gambit? One guess was that he was trying to impress Algeria's rebel F.L.N.. which last week resumed talks with the French at the Chateau de Lugrin, near Evian. In the five weeks since France broke off the talks, the F.L.N. has increased its prestige enormously and won new popularity among Algerian Moslems. Bourguiba, ambitious to lead a united Mahgreb of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, presumably felt the need to demonstrate to the F.L.N. and to the Arab world generally that he is no "imperialist lackey," but can be as anticolonialist and as pan-Arab as anyone. Furthermore, Bourguiba's earnest and devoted friendship seemed to have gotten him nowhere with France, while the F.L.N.'s intransigeance promised to succeed brilliantly.
All in all, the Bizerte incident had badly scarred all concerned. De Gaulle had enraged his best friend in the Arab world and damaged France's standing throughout Africa. Bourguiba's standing with the West was founded on his hard-held contention that cooperation got more than bristling hostility. With his truculence last week, Bourguiba scuttled Bourguibaism. If, as a result, he managed to lever the French out of Bizerte, every rising nationalist would be encouraged to believe that defiance achieved more than the moderation Bourguiba once stood for. Either way. the West would never look at him with the same confidence again.