ABSTRACT

Suez has imprinted in the collective French memory a heterogeneous legacy which, thirty years later, reflects the diversity of French temperaments. For some, the episode was a courageous page in the book of French history; for others, it reflects a shameful incident in an outdated and decadent history of French colonialism. But in order to understand the full impact of Suez, it is necessary to analyse the inner workings of political groups. In this sense, Suez-together with the Algerian war-represents a watershed in the transformation of the non-Communist Left from the end of the 1950s.