The Guillotine Falls

For 3 1/2 harrowing years, out of deference to an old ally, the U.S. has been playing along with the increasingly absurd legal fiction that revolt-torn Algeria is just another French province, like Normandy or Brittany. Last week the U.S. finally dropped a strong hint that it was not prepared to play make-believe with France much longer.

The hint came amidst another one of those periodic paroxysms of French politics, in which Felix Gaillard, France's 24th Premier since the war, was driven from office in a flurry of anti-American cries. What brought him down was an irresponsible coalition--Communists who demand peace in Algeria combined with right-wingers who want the war fought harder. Once again the French Assembly voted to evade truths and postpone consequences. Once again France was left with an administration but no government, a condition which seems to suit the national reluctance for hard decisions, so long as the trains run, the grapes ripen, prices creep up, prosperity reflects a 10% annual increase in production, and parliamentary government is allowed to discredit itself.

Weapon at Hand. In the National Assembly, Felix Gaillard slowly ran his eyes over the implacable faces of his fellow Deputies. "I trust," he said icily, "that no one in this house will be so cowardly as to abstain on an issue so important." No one did. As the great, gilt clock high on the Assembly wall showed 12:30 a.m., the guillotine fell on Gaillard. He had lasted five months and ten days, but he had not been in control of events since French planes from Algeria bombed the Tunisian village of Sakiet-Sidi-Youssef (TIME, Feb. 17). Gaillard had not been told in advance of the raid but had refused to reprimand the ministers responsible. At first grateful for the Anglo-American good offices mission which sought to restore harmony between France and Tunisia, Gaillard later was willing to let it fail--until brought up short by a private "friendly letter" from Dwight Eisenhower. When Gaillard then reversed himself (TIME, April 21), he gave France's right-wingers the very weapon they had been waiting for. Blazing with rhetorical fury at U.S. "interference" in French affairs (see below), the National Assembly last week threw Felix Gaillard out of office by a vote of 321 to 255.

Strange Weakness. To Gaillard, as to every other realistic Frenchman, it is painfully obvious that the real cause of France's troubles is not U.S. interference, but the Assembly's determination to avoid a compromise settlement in Algeria. In his last speech as Premier, Gaillard came closer than ever before to stating this publicly. "It is strange weakness," said he, "which imputes the causes of our perils and misfortunes to foreigners." Later, when the ballots had been counted and he was leaving the Assembly to tender his resignation to President Rene Coty, a striking blonde buttonholed Gaillard to tell him how much she had been moved by his eloquence. Said Gaillard lightly: "I hope, dear lady, I didn't make you cry."

Damnation. The prospect of evoking anti-Americanism in France had long deterred the U.S. from taking a clear-cut stand for negotiation with the Algerian rebels. Now that the U.S. was being damned for the thought, it might as well be damned for the deed. There were, in fact, compelling reasons to act. With the fall of the Gaillard government the Murphy-Beeley good offices mission went into a state of "suspension" from which it may well never emerge. In Tunis dynamic little Habib Bourguiba announced that, "out of courtesy" to France's 76-year-old President Coty, he was prepared to wait one week for France to find a new government. After that, he would go back to the U.N. Security Council with Tunisia's complaint over the bombing of Sakiet. If Bourguiba makes good on his warning, the result is likely to be a rich propaganda harvest for Russia, a weakening of Western influence in North Africa.

Within 48 hours of Gaillard's fall, a "top diplomatic source"--whom Frenchmen unanimously took to be Good Officer Robert Murphy, the U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of State--said that the U.S. had decided it must now give top priority to keeping North Africa loyal to the free world, and that to achieve this, it might be necessary for the French government to enter into direct negotiations with the Algerian rebels. Next day, in response to anguished outcries from French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau, the State Department, after the immemorial manner of diplomacy, blandly denied that there had been any change in U.S. policy on Algeria. But even in the denying, Washington emphasized U.S. anxiety for "a peaceful, democratic and just solution" to the Algerian war.

Government by Martyr. The new U.S. determination to jockey France toward a North African settlement considerably complicated President Coty's task of finding a man willing and able to step into Gaillard's shoes. Yet there were signs that for all the outcry, the U.S. pressure was causing some Frenchmen to reflect, along with Paris Presse, that "it is not possible for France to carry on its policy in Algeria without the U.S." Given the growth of this mood, there was one ray of hope: France's last two Premiers adopted and put into effect the very policies which led to the defeat of their predecessors; it is possible, therefore, that Gaillard's successor will be allowed to push through the policy which caused Gaillard's fall. "If that happens," suggested one British observer, "France will have found a handy new formula for progress--government by martyr."

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