The 16 May fraternisation was real, not merely rigged, drawing 30,000 Muslims

Evidence

Historians still find the “fraternisation” phenomenon of 16 May hard to explain. The official line of the F.L.N., as well as that of French sceptics, is that the whole demonstration was phoney, rigged by the psychological warfare experts of the French Cinquième Bureau; that the women who had so joyfully cast away their haiks were simply tarts rounded up for the occasion. But this at best can only be a half-truth. It is true that on the previous day para teams organised by Godard, Trinquier and Léger, who had all become intimately acquainted with the Casbah during the Battle of Algiers, had been hard at work coaxing the Muslims to turn out and stirring them up with heady assurances of equality and integration. But, unaccountably, success snowballed beyond all their expectations; instead of a hoped-for 5,000, it was a crowd of something like 30,000 Muslims that reached the Forum that evening. Stern critics of Algérie française like Le Monde and François Mauriac agreed on the genuineness of the demonstration, acclaiming it as a basis for new optimism. What thoughts and hopes lay behind those deeply etched, inscrutable Muslim faces on the Forum that day is difficult to divine, except perhaps a mystical, irrational belief that somehow the magical figure of de Gaulle was going to solve everything. Disillusion was bound to follow on both sides as euphoria was replaced by the realisation that the fraternisers were still each worshipping different gods. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 889 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

By mid-afternoon the Plateau des Glières was black with demonstrators—an estimated thirty thousand. Noticeably absent were any Muslims. Gone was the spirit of fraternisation of those May days of 1958; gone also was the good-natured atmosphere of fiesta that had prevailed at that time. In its place was a tougher and altogether more dangerous mood. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1096 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The 16 May Muslim fraternisation in Algiers grew far beyond what was staged.; The 16 May Muslim fraternisation was real, not a rigged para stunt — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 889; The 1960 insurrection lacked the intercommunal fraternity of May 1958 — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1096

Related

• The 16 May Muslim fraternisation in Algiers grew far beyond what was staged. (similarity 0.95)
• The 16 May Muslim fraternisation was real, not a rigged para stunt (similarity 0.95)
• The 1960 insurrection lacked the intercommunal fraternity of May 1958 (similarity 0.89)
• Thousands of Muslim Algerians joined pied noir crowds in mass pro-France fraternisation (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle’s 1958 arrival threatened the F.L.N. through fraternisation and a Muslim third force (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The 16 May Muslim fraternisation was real, not a rigged para stunt #corroborates (0.95) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 889
• The 1960 insurrection lacked the intercommunal fraternity of May 1958 #qualifies (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1096