ABSTRACT
All at once the weather deteriorated: we rediscovered the pitiless logic of disasters; whatever one does, in such events, everything benefits the enemy. The government, trying to save itself, was preparing its downfall: to escape from de Gaulle, they were throwing themselves into the arms of Salan. Most government ministers were convinced that the massacres in Algeria had to be halted as soon as possible. They wanted to say so; some, for the first time, had said so. But, if Pflimlin wanted to have a chance of remaining in post, he had to defeat de Gaulle by outdoing him. He offered twenty-seven months of military service, 80 billion francs of new taxes, sweeteners for the seditious generals. In vain: the men of Algiers – civilians as well as military – did not want him. Nor his money: they wanted de Gaulle.
