Senior French officers plotted an army takeover in Algeria in early 1957

Evidence

Teitgen, a hero of the Resistance who had survived Dachau, was little disposed towards an army takeover in Algeria in any shape, and he could hardly believe his ears. At first he thought the bronzed and rugged general had gone slightly out of his mind. On second thoughts, however, he decided he should delve a bit deeper, and called Faure in for a further discussion, this time recording it all on a tape. Fortified with it, he then went to warn Lacoste. Distressed by this news, especially as he regarded Faure as a “stout-hearted sort” (un coeur généreux), the governor-general despatched Teitgen to Paris to inform the Minister of Defence, Bourgès-Maunoury. Teitgen has told how the minister’s immediate reaction was to hope that the affair would not “make it impossible for one to go ski-ing”, and asked him whether he had said anything to “ce con-là”, Mitterrand, then Minister of Justice. Shocked by Bourgeès-Maunoury’s apparently frivolous lack of interest, as well as his disrespect for a fellow minister, Teitgen then went on to see Mollet himself. Mollet took the matter much more seriously, but in turn used the same expression in deprecating Bourgès-Maunoury — “ce con-là”! Teitgen returned to Algiers, disquieted at the apparent lack of solidarity within the government. Faure was recalled and sentenced to thirty days’ fortress arrest — the first senior officer to suffer such a penalty for dissidence in Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 540

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Faure conspiracy marks an early army sedition against the Fourth Republic — worth tracing how this foreshadows the 13 May 1958 putsch and De Gaulle’s return.
• XREF: connects to: Mollet’s political-warfare policies propelled the French army into politics.; A French army had not directly intervened in national politics since Napoleon’s coup; The army viewed any negotiated ceasefire as toppling its war effort in Algeria (+7 more)

Related

• The army viewed any negotiated ceasefire as toppling its war effort in Algeria (similarity 0.88)
• Military commanders seized power in both Algeria and France at the same moment (similarity 0.87)
• A French army had not directly intervened in national politics since Napoleon’s coup (similarity 0.87)
• Mollet’s political-warfare policies propelled the French army into politics. (similarity 0.87)
• Salan slipped away from French surveillance into Spanish exile. (similarity 0.85)
• A coup plot against civil government in Algeria emerged in late 1956 (similarity 0.85)
• Military victory elevated the army to ultimate political arbiter in Algeria (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle purged Algeria’s army of May 1958 activists (similarity 0.79)
• Thousands of French officers were implicated and internally denounced in the putsch’s aftermath (similarity 0.79)
• The Algiers leaders planned a para airborne coup against Paris in May 1958. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Military victory elevated the army to ultimate political arbiter in Algeria #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 685
• Defeat in Algeria paradoxically produced a stronger France #complicates (0.40)