The United States Mission in Algeria

A Historical Sketch

![](media/image1.wmf)

Christopher Ross, April 1991

(Ambassador to Algeria 1988-1991)

**Table of Contents**

[Introduction 5](#introduction)

[1785-1797: Treaty Negotiations and Implementation
6](#treaty-negotiations-and-implementation)

[Algiers 6](#algiers)

[American Shipping 6](#american-shipping)

[The Threat 6](#the-threat)

[A Policy Debate 6](#a-policy-debate)

[Captain John Lamb 7](#captain-john-lamb)

[The Treaty of 1795 7](#the-treaty-of-1795)

[John Paul Jones 7](#john-paul-jones)

[Salary and Cost of Living Surveys
7](#salary-and-cost-of-living-surveys)

[1797-1830: Dealings with the Dey 9](#dealings-with-the-dey)

[Richard O'Brien 9](#richard-obrien)

[Algiers Bicentennial 9](#algiers-bicentennial)

[Algiers and the Roots of FSI 10](#algiers-and-the-roots-of-fsi)

[The Corsairs and the Birth of the Navy
10](#the-corsairs-and-the-birth-of-the-navy)

[The Dey's Exactions 10](#the-deys-exactions)

[Naval Confrontation 11](#naval-confrontation)

[Treaties of 1815 and 1816 11](#treaties-of-1815-and-1816)

[The American Example 11](#the-american-example)

[The Lees of Virginia Fly the Flag
12](#the-lees-of-virginia-fly-the-flag)

[An Account of the Fighting 12](#an-account-of-the-fighting)

[An American Loses His Own Head 12](#an-american-loses-his-own-head)

[1830-1941: Visitors and Victrolas 13](#visitors-and-victrolas)

[Early Political Flair 13](#early-political-flair)

[A First Codel 13](#a-first-codel)

[Tourism Begins 14](#tourism-begins)

[American Orientalists 14](#american-orientalists)

[F. Scott Fitzgerald 14](#f.-scott-fitzgerald)

[Commercial Promotion 15](#commercial-promotion)

[Foreign Service Memorial 15](#foreign-service-memorial)

[A Consular Diary 15](#a-consular-diary)

[On travel to the U.S. 16](#on-travel-to-the-u.s.)

[On Clearing Shipments 16](#on-clearing-shipments)

[On driving 16](#on-driving)

[A Riddle 16](#a-riddle)

[On Visa Regulations 16](#on-visa-regulations)

[On immigration: 16](#on-immigration)

[A Prediction 16](#a-prediction)

[On the Political Situation 17](#on-the-political-situation)

[On Economic Conditions 17](#on-economic-conditions)

[On Oil 17](#on-oil)

[1941-1945: Diplomats Among Warriors 18](#diplomats-among-warriors)

[Murphy-Weygand Agreement 18](#murphy-weygand-agreement)

[FDR's Representative 18](#fdrs-representative)

[Submarine Cloak and Dagger 18](#submarine-cloak-and-dagger)

[Operation Torch 18](#operation-torch)

[Allied Headquarters 19](#allied-headquarters)

[VIP Visitors 19](#vip-visitors)

[Early Contacts with Algerian Nationalists
19](#early-contacts-with-algerian-nationalists)

[A Diplomatic Mission 20](#a-diplomatic-mission)

[Consulates in Bône and Oran 20](#consulates-in-bône-and-oran)

[Expectations for the Future 20](#expectations-for-the-future)

[Repatriation of War Dead 21](#repatriation-of-war-dead)

[1945-1962: The Wolves in the City 22](#the-wolves-in-the-city)

[Acquisition of Montfeld 22](#acquisition-of-montfeld)

[Acquisition of Mustapha Raïs 22](#acquisition-of-mustapha-raïs)

[French Complaints 22](#french-complaints)

[JFK Speaks Out 23](#jfk-speaks-out)

[French Settlers Attack Facilities
23](#french-settlers-attack-facilities)

[Consulate General Moves 24](#consulate-general-moves)

[Algerian-American Contacts 24](#algerian-american-contacts)

[Constantine and Oran Consulates Open
24](#constantine-and-oran-consulates-open)

[Algerian Independence 24](#algerian-independence)

[1962-1973: A difficult Beginning 25](#a-difficult-beginning)

[From the White House to Havana 25](#from-the-white-house-to-havana)

[Early Assistance to Algeria 25](#early-assistance-to-algeria)

[Political Chill Sets In 26](#political-chill-sets-in)

[Constantine Center Closed 26](#constantine-center-closed)

[Diplomatic Relations Broken 26](#diplomatic-relations-broken)

[Algerian Diplomacy Ascendant 26](#algerian-diplomacy-ascendant)

[Presence Further Reduced 27](#presence-further-reduced)

[Constantine Consulate Closed 27](#constantine-consulate-closed)

[Commercial Relations Blossom 27](#commercial-relations-blossom)

[Gas Cooperation 27](#gas-cooperation)

[An Astronaut Visits 28](#an-astronaut-visits)

[1973-1991: A period of Pragmatism 29](#a-period-of-pragmatism)

[Relations Restored 29](#relations-restored)

[Political Relations Initially Cool
29](#political-relations-initially-cool)

[Commercial Relations Bear Fruit 30](#commercial-relations-bear-fruit)

[Bedjedid Succeeds Boumediene 30](#bedjedid-succeeds-boumediene)

[Military Sales Begin 30](#military-sales-begin)

[Disaster Assistance 30](#disaster-assistance)

[Tehran Hostage Negotiations 30](#tehran-hostage-negotiations)

[Visits Exchanged and Agreements Signed
31](#visits-exchanged-and-agreements-signed)

[Growth in Programs and Staff 32](#growth-in-programs-and-staff)

[LNG: The U.S. Market Reestablished
32](#lng-the-u.s.-market-reestablished)

[Focus on Reforms 33](#focus-on-reforms)

[The Gulf War 33](#the-gulf-war)

[Appendix 34](#appendix)

[Post Premises Through the Years 34](#post-premises-through-the-years)

[Algiers 34](#algiers-1)

[1785-1830: Town and Country 34](#town-and-country)

[1796: New Year's Ruckus in Town 34](#new-years-ruckus-in-town)

[1796: Two Houses Justified 34](#two-houses-justified)

[1797: Two Houses Accepted 34](#two-houses-accepted)

[1808: Romantic Country Houses 34](#romantic-country-houses)

[1809: Party Time 35](#party-time)

[1825: Fancy Digs in Town 35](#fancy-digs-in-town)

[1827: Summer Heat 36](#summer-heat)

[1830: A Handy Flag 36](#a-handy-flag)

[1991: A footnote 37](#a-footnote)

[1830-1913: Frequent Moves 37](#frequent-moves)

[1913-1961: Long Leases 38](#long-leases)

[1913-25: On the Seafront 38](#on-the-seafront)

[1925-40: Across from the Police 38](#across-from-the-police)

[1940-61: Near the Sacred Heart 38](#near-the-sacred-heart)

[1961-Present: On the Heights 39](#present-on-the-heights)

[Oran 39](#oran)

[1943-46: A Wartime Consulate 39](#a-wartime-consulate)

[1962-Present: A Peacetime Consulate 39](#present-a-peacetime-consulate)

[Constantine 39](#constantine)

[1962-72: A Consulate for a Decade 39](#a-consulate-for-a-decade)

[Bône (Annaba) 40](#bône-annaba)

[The U.S. and The French Occupation of 1830
41](#the-u.s.-and-the-french-occupation-of-1830)

[The Allied Landings of 1942 43](#the-allied-landings-of-1942)

#   {#section .unnumbered}

# Introduction

The United States has been represented in Algeria since the earliest
days of the Republic. Beginning in 1785 -- only two years after
independence -- special envoys were designated to negotiate a treaty of
friendship and amity. In 1797, our first resident Consul General
arrived.

The history of American involvement in Algeria since those early days is
rich in events. This sketch is an attempt to give Americans visiting and
working in Algeria a sense of these events, to encourage further
reading, and to stimulate future weekend historians to add to the
record. It is based on a review of published materials and unpublished
Embassy files and emphasizes interesting snapshots over comprehensive
analysis.

Those interested in the flavor of earlier times may wish to review the
first sections. For today's practitioner, the last sections will prove
most informative. Three appendices, with additional details for the
history-minded, are attached.

Special thanks are due to two Algiers alumni, Richard Parker (Principal
Officer/Ambassador 1974-77) and Robert Pelletreau (Political Officer
1973-75), for having encouraged my taste for diplomatic history and for
supplying me with many relevant materials.

Montfeld, April 1, 1991

# 1785-1797: Treaty Negotiations and Implementation

One of the first foreign policy issues that confronted our new Republic
after 1783 was politico-military: the achievement of independence meant
that American shipping in and near the Mediterranean could no longer
count on the British navy for protection against the Barbary corsairs of
Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Salé (Rabat).

## Algiers

The Regency of Algiers was governed at this time by a Turkish janissary
garrison that selected its own ruler, the Day ("Uncle"). The prosperity
of this garrison and its population of Kouloughlis (Turco-Algerians),
Moors, and tribal migrants depended in large part on the tribute that
trading states paid to protect their shipping from corsair attacks and
on the seizure of ships, crews, and cargoes belonging to states that
failed to pay. For the Regency, these seizures were a lawful economic
activity; for the U.S., they constituted piracy.

## American Shipping

American trade with southern European and North African ports was
growing, with products such as dried codfish, naval stores, pickled beef
and pork, grain, and rum much in demand. The U.S. was in competition
with European interests, and it is likely that the British among other
were encouraging the corsairs to attack defenseless American ships. Ben
Franklin, the Minister to Great Britain, wrote in 1783 that London
merchants had a maxim: "If there were no Algiers, it would be worth
England's while to build one."

## The Threat

Mohamed Ben Othman (Dey from 1766 to 1791) let it be known that he
"declared war on all states that did not want to pay the customary fees
for freedom of navigation." Starting in 1785, numerous American ships,
crews, and cargoes fell into the hands of the Algerines (as the
inhabitants of Algiers were known) and other Barbary corsairs. Algiers
alone captured at least 15 American ships in the period from 1785 to
1793).

## A Policy Debate

American efforts to deal with this situation were hampered by an
internal debate on how best to deal with the Barbary corsairs. Many
European countries paid tribute on the assumption that doing so was
cheaper in the long run than the cost of deploying large navies, the
losses suffered to corsairs, and the ransoms required to release
captured crews. In 1785, John Adams, Minister to Great Britain at the
time, espoused this view, while Thomas Jefferson, then Minister to
France, argued against tribute and for a resort to naval power. The
debate was settled by budgetary considerations -- the fledgling republic
did not have enough tax revenues to build and deploy a large navy.

## Captain John Lamb

Congress, felling the pressure of commercial interests, became
increasingly concerned and decided to try the path of negotiation. In
1785, Jefferson, acting at the recommendation of the Continental
Congress, dispatched Captain John Lamb of Connecticut to Algiers to
negotiate a treaty of friendship with the Regency. Lamb, a ship captain
who had been active in the North African trade and had nominated himself
for this role, arrived in Algiers in 1786, but Dey Mohamed refused to
discuss a treaty with "rebels against the King of England." The British
Consul, who reported this news gleefully to London, may have had a hand
in this turn of events. The corporation of corsairs, too, opposed any
treaty that would prevent them from capturing American prizes.

## The Treaty of 1795

In the end, it took over ten years and four successive negotiators to
reach agreement and obtain the release of all American captives. The
Treaty of Peace and Amity signed in 1795 committed the Dey to ensuring
the safe passage of American ships, but only in exchange for an annual
payment of naval stores, i.e., tribute, with the value of \$21,600
(\$112,295 in 1991 dollars on the basis of comparative silver prices). A
lump sum of \$642,500 (\$3,340,000 in 1991 dollars) had to be paid to
obtain the release of the accumulated captives. These provisions stuck
in the craw of the Congress, but there was no feasible alternative.

## John Paul Jones

The revolutionary naval hero John Paul Jones was to have been among the
early negotiators. President Washington commissioned him in 1792, but he
was living in Paris at the time and died before his commission arrived.

## Salary and Cost of Living Surveys

The last treaty negotiator to be commissioned was Joel Barlow, a
rough-hewn poet from Connecticut and a graduate of Yale, who arrived in
1796. Barlow was instrumental in making the financial arrangements
required by the Treaty of 1795 for the release of the captives, and he
left Algiers in 1797.

Addressing the issue of remuneration for himself and his successors,
Barlow wrote Secretary of State Pickering in 1796: "I am an enemy to
high salaries... but the English Consul here has £1,000 a year... The
Spaniard has 1,000 Dollars and all his expenses... (both without leave
of trade). The Sweed has 4,600 Dollars for himself and Secretary with
leave of trade, the Venetians and the Dutch about 3,000 each with leave
to trade... Most of the substantial articles of meet and drink are
cheaper here than they are in ... Europe. But... a Consul is obliged to
keep a greater number of Servants, and it is really necessary for him to
have two Houses, one in town and one in the Country, the first for
Business and residence in time of health, and the other as a retreat in
times of the Plague, and a place where he can keep his cows and other
cattle and make his wine and garden stuff..."

The right to trade was important, since, from 1792 to 1856, American
consular officials were paid no fixed salaries, but were expected to
live off the fees collected for their services.

# 1797-1830: Dealings with the Dey

From 1797 to 1830, a series of Consuls General, who also had supervisory
responsibilities over Consuls in the other Barbary states, worked to
protect American shipping from the Algerian corsairs by maintaining
friendly relations with the Dey and watching for hostile European
maneuvers. This became particularly difficult during the Napoleonic wars
and the War of 1812, in the shadow of which the Algerians resumed the
capture of American ships in violation of the Treaty of 1795. The
day-to-day tasks of these Consuls General included issuing "passports"
for American ships, arranging tribute payments to the Dey, and
conducting negotiations for the release of Americans captured in
violation of the Treaty of 1795.

## Richard O'Brien

The first American representative commissioned to live in Algiers was
Richard O'Brien, a ship's master of salty idiom captured by the
Algerians in 1785 and released in 1796. A naturalized Irishman from
Pennsylvania, O'Brien was appointed by President Adams on July 10, 1797.

Joel Barlow may have had a hand in this appointment, since, in 1796, he
had written Pickering: "I beg you to remark the superior sagacity and
talents displayed by Captain O'Brien... (I am) convinced that a more
suitable person than he cannot probably be found to be placed here as
Consul for the United States... He has a singular talent in which is
called Algerian management. The blemishes that arise from a defect in
the rudimental parts of his education will appear only in his
correspondence. The jargon of this country called 'lingua franca,' in
which all business is done by work of mouth, puts the scholar and the
sailor on a level, and the University of Algiers is better for certain
purposes than New Haven."

## Algiers Bicentennial

With O'Brien's appointment, the Regency of Algiers appears to have
become the sixth state -- after France, Spain, the Netherlands, Great
Britain, and Portugal -- to receive a resident American envoy. This was
a clear sign of the importance to U.S. attached to the protection of its
Mediterranean shipping. Since the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul was
formally the suzerain of the Dey of Algiers, our resident envoys were
commissioned as Consuls General, even though they had diplomatic
functions.

Resident envoys have been assigned to Algiers without interruption from
1797 to the present with the exception of the period from 1876 to 1881,
when Congress failed to appropriate funds to keep the post open! The
bicentennial of resident American representation in Algeria will thus
fall in July 1997.

## Algiers and the Roots of FSI

Preeminent among these early representatives was William Shaler, who
served from 1815 to 1828 and who published one of the first
comprehensive studies of Algeria in English, "Sketches of Algiers,
Political, Historical, and Civil" (Boston, 1826). A tablet in his memory
may be seen in the narthex of the Anglican Church. It notes that "during
his residence at Algiers he displayed great ability under trying
circumstances and in the troublous times preceding and subsequent to
Lord Exmouth's operations. He rendered signal services to the British
Consul and nation. His valuable work, "Sketches of Algiers," served
materially to ensure the success of the French expeditionary force which
captured Algiers. A tribute of respect to his memory from R.L.P."

In 1826, the Department of State sent its first overseas language
student -- William Hodgson -- to Algiers as "pupil-interpreter" and
secretary to Shaler, with the task of mastering Turkish, Arabic, and
other tongues. By the time Hodgson left Algiers in 1829, he had laid the
groundwork for the first scholarly study of the Berber languages.

## The Corsairs and the Birth of the Navy

From the very beginning, the American public and Congress chafed at the
notion that safety for shipping had to be bought with tribute, and the
slogan of "millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," gained
increasing force. Using the new tax powers granted under the
Constitution of 1789, Congress authorized the construction of six
frigates in 1794. Then, beginning in 1801, it began to appropriate funds
for the deployment of naval squadrons whenever needed. These were the
beginnings of the U.S. Navy and its Mediterranean vocation.

## The Dey's Exactions

The naval buildup took time, although it was accelerated by the First
Barbary War against Tripoli (1801-05) and the Tripolitanians'
humiliating capture of the USS Philadelphia in 1804.

Meanwhile, the U.S. had to avoid offending the Dey. Thus, in 1800, when
the USS George Washington delivered that year's tribute, Captain William
Bainbridge had to accept Dey Mustapha Pacha's demand that he transport a
delegation and presents to the Ottoman Sultan. The ship embarked the
Algerian Ambassador, his suite of 100 persons, 100 slave women and
children, four horses, 150 sheep, 25 heads of cattle, four lions, four
tigers, four antelopes, 12 parrots, and several ostriches, together with
funds and regalia. American prestige plummeted, and Brainbridge later
complained to the Secretary of the Navy that "I hope I may never again
be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am authorized to deliver it
from the mouth of our cannon!"

## Naval Confrontation

Algerian exactions reached a climax in 1812, when the corsairs of
Algiers demanded that Dey Hadj Ali Pacha declare ware and renew the
seizure of American prizes. The tribute of naval stores sent that year
was rejected as unsuitable, the Consul was told to depart, and at least
one ship was seized. The end of the War of 1812 in 1814 gave the U.S. a
new opportunity to deal with the Algerians. In the face of treaty
violations and an 1813 report that this same Dey had declared that his
"policy and views are to increase, not diminish, the number of American
slaves," Congress acted in 1815 to reject the payment of further
tribute, declare war on the Regency, and send Commodores Bainbridge and
Stephen Decatur to the Mediterranean with a naval force of sufficient
size to compel conclusion of a favorable treaty.

In June 1815, in the opening battle of the second Barbary War, Decatur
defeated the corsair commander Raïs Hamidou in the Straits of Gibralter,
appeared before Algiers, and sent the Dey, now Omar Pacha, an ultimatum.
Henry Filed, writing in "The Barbary Coast" (New York, 1893), captured
the moment well: "The Dey, seeing that the American captain was in
earnest, and fearing the effect of such an example, tried to compromise,
and modestly suggested that he would accept even a little powder, just
to keep up appearances, to which the gallant Commodore replied that 'if
he took the powder, he must take the balls too!', a suggestion that was
not at all agreeable; and the Dey soon make the best of a bad case by
yielding the point, virtually admitting that, rather than receive that
kind of tribute, he would receive none at all."

## Treaties of 1815 and 1816

The resulting Treaty of Peace of 1815 obtained the release of all
American captives and established relations of peace without further
payment of tribute. Dey Omar's attempts to evade it required a new show
of naval force under Commodore Isaac Chauncey and conclusion of a
confirmatory Treaty of Peace and Amity in 1816. On this occasion, Omar
was so afraid that his entourage, whose livelihood depended on corsair
prizes, would kill him for signing that he demanded and obtained a
certificate stating that he had been forced to sign at the muzzle of a
cannon. Nine months later, he was assassinated anyway.

## The American Example

The U.S. was thus the first state to compel the Regency of Algiers to
give its ships safe passage without payment of tribute. The British
followed suit in 1816, when Lord Exmouth subjected Algiers to a naval
bombardment. A tablet honoring Decatur, Bainbridge, and Shaler for their
action against the "intolerable bondage" of the Barbary states may be
seen in the narthex of the Anglican Church.

## The Lees of Virginia Fly the Flag

The Turkish period ended with the French occupation of Algiers in 1830.
Major Henry Lee of Virginia, son of Light Horse Harry Lee and
half-brother of Robert E. Lee and a political pamphleteer during
President Jackson's 1828 campaign, was Consul General at the time under
a recess appointment later rejected by the Senate. It was under his
flag, flying over a garden especially rented from the Ben Taleb family
and now the site of the Bouzareah Observatory, that the consular corps
(with the exception of the French and British) sought refuge from the
fighting (see appendix: [The U.S. and The French Occupation of
1830](#the-u.s.-and-the-french-occupation-of-1830)).

## An Account of the Fighting

George F. Brown of Virginia, who was Lee's deputy, told Thomas Campbell,
an 1834 visitor and author of "The Journal of a Residence in Algiers"
(London, 1842), that "he had been near enough to the scene of one of the
battles to see a close conflict between bayonets and yatagans (Turkish
knifes), and could descry a Kabyle, who had mastered a French soldier,
cut off his head and bring it away with him under his arm. At first, the
regular price of one hundred dollars was given for every such trophy
brought into the Moorish Government; but a Kabyle warrior having been
detected in bringing in a native instead of a French head, he lost his
own for the attempted imposition, and the capitation prize money was
discontinued."

## An American Loses His Own Head

The French occupation caused at least one American fatality. The British
Consular Diary records that, on June 24, 1830, "an American, serving as
interpreter with the French army, was taken prisoner to-day and carried
to the Dey, who questioned him on the different forces which the French
had brought here; and when he told the Dey that they had brought 200
cannons with them, His Highness got into a violent passion with him,
saying that he had told him a falsehood, and had his head cut off for it
immediately." Such was the temper of Hussein Dey.

# 1830-1941: Visitors and Victrolas

The French occupation led to the expulsion of the Turkish garrison and
the installation of a French administration, which in turn led the
Department of State to downgrade Algiers to a Consulate. From 1830 to
1924, a series of Consuls, usually assisted by one secretary or Vice
Consul, performed consular, commercial, and political functions in the
shadow of the French administration. Political reporting seems to have
focused mostly on the Algerian echoes of events in Europe, although some
attention was also paid to political forces within the Muslim
population. The pace of life was leisurely; office hours in 1899 where 9
to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m.

In 1924, evidently in recognition of a growing workload, the Department
of State began assigning principal officers of the rank of Consul
General. Informally, at least, the post became a Consulate General, and
staffing grew modestly. With the advent of fascism in Europe, increasing
attention was paid to its effect among the Europeans of Algeria, as well
as to the growth of political activity among the Muslim inhabitants. By
1927, office hours had become 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

## Early Political Flair

Edward L. Kingsbury of Maine, Consul from 1863 to 1870, impressed one
British visitor, Mrs. G. Albert Rogers, enough to appear in her
travelogue, "A Winter in Algeria 1863-4" (London, 1865): "G. called on
the American Consul, and found him an agreeable and well-informed young
man. Indeed, his sole work here is to glean information and transmit it
to his Government. There is not one single American resident in the
place, nor as yet a visitor from across the Atlantic. He did not seem to
think that much love was lost between the Arabs and their present
masters. The French are not felicitous in their endeavor to win the
affections of their nomadic subjects... Certain it is that the French,
with all their diversified talents, do not seem gifted in forming a
prosperous and happy colony."

## A First Codel

Samuel S. Cox, a visiting congressman from New York City, complained in
1869 that "commerce increases, despite restrictions, but the United
States have no part in this commerce. I find no record of any American
vessels at the ports. Our consular duties are restricted to rescuing
naturalized citizens from the French army." It seems the Hill had less
fear of charges of junkets in those days, since the work in which this
complaint appeared was called "Search for Winter Sunbeams in the
Riviera, Corsica, Algiers, and Spain" (New York, 1870). Cox even went so
far as to inscribe his book to "my constituents... To you, I have the
honor and pleasure of dedicating these 'sunbeams' of travel. They were
made bright by your confidence, and cheerful by your indulgence."

## Tourism Begins

The growing fame of Algiers as a winter resort and as a jumping-off
point for exotic oases such as Biskra led well-to-do British and
Americans to begin visiting Algeria in the mid-1860's. Some of the
wealthier bought winter homes on the heights of Algiers; the Snedens of
New York, who owned the DCM Residence at Oued El Kilaï from 1892 to
1929, were one such family. In 1893, Henry Field noted that "the
American element is small. But there are always some of our countrymen
coming and going, whose faces it is pleasant to see. As the readiest way
of being brought in contact with these birds of passage, no one should
forget to call on our Consul, Mr. C. Grellet, a gentleman who, as his
name implies, is of French descent, though born in California, where his
father was among the 'forty-niners,' though he soon removed to Algeria.
To Mr. Grellet I owe my first introduction to Algiers. He went with me
everywhere." Business must have been slow in those years.

## American Orientalists

One group that left a lasting record was that of the American
Orientalist painters. Inspired by a much larger Orentalist movement in
Europe, and often students of the French master Gérôme, they came to
Algiers in the 1870's and 80's to take advantage of the light and the
exotica. Foremost among this group was Frederick Arthur Bridgman of
Tuskegee, Alabama (1847-1928), who has left us his impressions,
illustrated with hi drawings, in "Winters in Algeria" (New York/London,
1889/1890). Married into wealth, he painted for pleasure but developed
into one of the greatest of the Orientalist painters. A sportsman and
amateur musician as well, he led a "brilliant social life," for which he
loved to dress in Oriental costume. Other American Orientalist painters
who visited and painted in Algiers were Louis Tiffany of New York City
(1848-1933), Edwin Lord Weeks of Boston (1849-1903), and Addison Thomas
Millar, of Warren, Ohio (1850-1913). The works of these painters are
held by several American museums.

## F. Scott Fitzgerald

The turn of the century saw the emergence of a new genre in popular
literature -- the desert romance. Robert Hichens' "The Garden of Allah"
(New York, 1904) and E.M. Hull's "The Sheik" (New York, 1919) and its
sequel, "The Sons of the Sheik" (New York, 1925), put the Algerian
desert and Biskra in particular on the map. By the 1920's and 30's,
Cook's and other travel agencies, vaunting Algeria's climate and local
color and taking advantage of the opening of new rail lines into the
desert, were offering package tours. In February 1930, F. Scott and
Zelda Fitzgerald, then living in Paris, signed up with the Compagnie
Transatlantique for a tour of Bou Saada, Biskra, Batna, Timgad,
Constantine, and Algiers to give Zelda a rest from ballet lessons and
writing. The biographers report that the trip did not accomplish its
purpose.

## Commercial Promotion

By the 1920's, the Consuls' efforts to promote trade with the U.S. --
mandated by Secretary of State Evarts in the 1880's -- seem to have been
bearing fruit. George W. Wickersham, writing in "Spring in Morocco and
Algiers" (New York, 1923), affirmed that "there is a growing commerce
between the U.S. and ... Algeria... American victrolas warble the latest
jazz music or topical song to Moorish and Arab ears in cloistered harems
and nomadic tents... American safety razors and typewriters are found
everywhere, and American agricultural implements of various kinds
increasingly are employed throughout North Africa, while the pensive
Arab solemnly munches American chewing gum."

## Foreign Service Memorial

During these years, at least three principal officers died at post:
Madison A. Lybrook of Ohio, who died in 1886 at the age of 28 (a tablet
in his memory may be seen in the narthex of the Anglican Church); Dean
Birchard Mason of Ohio, who died in 1917; and Henry P. Starrett of
Florida, who died in 1933. Mason is buried here. The diary of the
Consulate General for May 30, 1935 records:

> Among the serried ranks of graves in the Carré Anglais of Cemetery,
> overlooking the Bay of Algiers, there is a stone marked:

Dean Birchard Mason

Consul of the United States of America

Died at Algiers in the service of his country

January 16, 1917

I trust the breeze that wafts the scent of geraniums over his final
resting place will recall the lake breeze that tempered the summer days
in Cleveland, his birthplace, and that along with his companions who
wore the vestments of Army, Navy, Church, and Civil life of different
lands, he has in spirit gone "where their tears shall be taken away and
there shall be no death."

The circumstances of Mason's death are not know, but they may have been
violent. A Consul was detailed from Paris to Algiers on January 18, 1917
"to assume charge, render assistance (to) Mrs. Mason, investigate stolen
property, etc." Mason may also have had a lady friend in Algiers, since,
according to Consulate General diary of 1935, "an unknown woman is
reputed to regularly decorate Consul Mason's grave with flowers and to
pay a small sum to the caretaker for the upkeep of the grave."

## A Consular Diary

In 1935, Consul General Ernest L. Ives and his staff began keeping an
unofficial diary of events, a copy of which still exists at post. A
record of events large and small from May 15, 1935 to September 1, 1936,
it provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of the post at the time.
Political, economic, commercial, cultural, and administrative events
were briefly described, along with pithy comments:

### On travel to the U.S.

"Requested Atwater to make tentative reservation for me on the dirigible
leaving Germany for the United States during September. As the
Department only granted me fifty-five days leave, to include travel
time, I may be able to snatch a few days more in the United States."

### On Clearing Shipments

"Our skilled negotiator... snaked out a 'colis' from its lair on the
quays for me the other day with diplomacy and dispatch. However, he was
promised that upon his next visit the task would prove more difficult."

### On driving

"Another accident on the Route Moutonnière, a truck and an automobile...
It is crowded thoroughfare, with sheep, cows, trucks, automobiles,
natives and whatnot, with no traffic control, and the drivers observe no
speed regulations or rules for driving. Motoring in Algeria is at best
more work than pleasure."

### A Riddle

"It is reported by an unimpeachable authority that Johnnie Fry, son of
the lamented late pastor of the English Church, makes the finest
marmalade in Algeria. Cogitating upon this fact I found in the archives
Consul Dow's report in 1922 on the opportunities for young men in
Algeria, which gave further food for reflection."

### On Visa Regulations

"Our strict observance of regulations has the particular effect of
astonishing our Algerian friends, to whom all seems possible, provided
'bachsheesh' or a 'connaissance' may be brought into play."

### On immigration:

"America must still be the promised land. A French citizen called at the
Consulate General today and desired to immigrate there, inasmuch as
being an immigrant, the United States would bear the expenses of his
transplanting. Perhaps he has been listening to Huey Long over the radio
and thinks in addition to his expenses he should be given a \$5,000.00 a
year job, a nice home, and a new motor conveyance."

### A Prediction

"The French, notwithstanding the fact that they have not sufficient
people to colonize even Algeria, Morocco or Tunis, and are able to hold
them only by military force, will continue to hold what they have got,
until such time as the natives make it too expensive and too hot for
them."

### On the Political Situation

According to one pessimistic Frenchman: "The French people must realize
that they could no longer treat the natives a little children, that now
many of the natives were educated and were beginning to demand their
just rights... Conditions from every angle were very bad."

According to a more optimistic Frenchman: "The natives generally
speaking were a peace-loving people, but empty stomachs, (and)
propaganda fostered by an organization -- Ulemsa -- at Geneva through
branches in... Constantine and Algiers... (were) not conducive to a
quiet future, and that the government must do something for the natives
and at the same time be firm... The natives in general wanted
citizenship and the vote and at the same time to adhere to their
religion. This France would not countenance."

### On Economic Conditions

"On the road towards Constantine on Sunday I noticed many Arabs who
seemed to be trekking in search of work. They were mostly in rags and
looked underfed. For any work they can get starvation wages are being
paid."

### On Oil

According to an American geologist: "The huge desert area to the south
is underlaid... by a substratum of highly metamorphosed rock in which it
is practically impossible that oil deposits would exist." (sic!)

# 1941-1945: Diplomats Among Warriors

From 1941 to 1945, Algiers hosted both diplomatic and military personnel
active in the war effort against the Axis. In recognition of the city's
growing importance, the Consulate was formally elevated to a Consulate
General on September 6, 1944.

## Murphy-Weygand Agreement

The U.S. quickly moved to establish a position in Vichy French North
Africa, which the Germans left unoccupied. Beginning in December 1940,
Robert Murphy, Counselor of Embassy at the American Embassy in Vichy
(who later became the first Under Secretary of State for Political
Affairs), made several trips to Algiers for preliminary contacts. In
February 1941, he and General Maxime Weygand, Delegate General of Vichy
France in North Africa, signed an agreement providing for the use of
French funds frozen in the U.S. to buy limited quantities of
non-strategic American goods needed in North Africa. At British
insistence, "Vice Consuls" were assigned to North African posts in the
course of 1941 to prevent the diversion of goods to the Axis. These in
fact were military personnel operating as intelligence agents.

## FDR's Representative

Later in 1941, Murphy was assigned to Algiers as the Personal
Representative of President Roosevelt to the Vichy French authorities of
North Africa, and he, the staff of the post, and the "Vice Consuls" made
secret preparations for Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North
Africa that opened the way for Operation Husky (the landings in Sicily)
and the subsequent invasion of Italy. A key requirement was to
coordinate the landings with the French officers sympathetic to the
Allies so as to minimize the possibility of resistance on the part of
Vichy French unites in Algeria.

## Submarine Cloak and Dagger

The central French figure in this coordination was General Charles Mast.
Murphy, Vice Consul Ridgway Knight (who later became Ambassador to
Syria, Belgium, and Portugal), and Mast met with Generals Mark Clark and
Lyman Lemnitzer on October 21-23, 1942 to put the finishing touches on
the invasion plans. Clark and Lemnitzer were landed by submarine for
this meeting at the Teissier (or Sitgès) farm near the Messelmoun River
19 kilometers west of Cherchell. Vichy police, alerted by suspicious
servants to possible smuggling, almost caught the plotters in the act,
but Murphy, playing on French sensibilities, convinced them he was
receiving lady friends.

## Operation Torch

On November 8, 1942, beginning at 0100, Allied forces landed in Morocco
and Algeria. 33,000 American and British troops landed east and west of
Algiers, while 31,000 landed east and west of Oran (see appendix: [The
Allied Landings of 1942](#the-allied-landings-of-1942)).

The Algiers task force included more than 40 ships. Troops landed in
four beach sectors to the east between the Reghaia River and Jean-Bart
(now El Marsa) and in five sectors to the west -- one along rocky shores
around Pointe Pescade (now Raïs Hamidou), two on beaches between La
Madrague (now El Djemila) and Sidi Ferruch (now Sidi Fredj), and two on
beaches between the Mazafran River and Castiglinoe (now Bou Ismaïl). Two
British ships meanwhile tried to force the harbor to land U.S. infantry
to secure the port. One was hit by coastal batteries and retired; the
other was damaged but made it to the quay.

The first missions of the eastern forces were to secure Maison Blanche
Airport (now Houari Boumediene Airport) and join the western forces in a
pincer movement on Algiers itself; the first missions of the western
forces were to secure the Blida Airfield (now an Algerian air force
base), cut Algiers' road communications with the south, and join in the
pincer movement on the city. These forces were quickly successful,
unlike those landed at the port, which were immediately taken prisoner
by Vichy French forces. All in all, though resistance and casualties
were light.

## Allied Headquarters

The day after the landings, General Clark arrived to set up Allied
headquarters at the Hotel St. George (now the Hotel El Djazaïr), which
Murphy had reserved for that purpose. General Dwight Eisenhower himself
moved to Algiers on November 23, setting up his offices in a second
floor suite of the hotel and his residence at Dar El Ouard, not the
residence of the Spanish Ambassador. In the 13 months that Eisenhower
spent in the city, Allied prosecution of the North African campaign and
planning for the invasions of Sicily and Italy were centered in Algiers,
where a staff of 6,000 labored night and day for over 20 months. British
Prime Minister Churchill visited Eisenhower for planning conferences at
Dar El Ouard twice, in February and May 1943.

## VIP Visitors

Murphy, in his "Diplomat Among Warriors" (Garden City, New York, 1964),
voiced a classic Foreign Service complaint: "I thought that after the
arrival of our expeditionary force, I still would be concerned chiefly
with Frenchmen... It seemed obvious that we must depend almost entirely
upon French military and civilian officials... I could not have been
more wrong... My chief preoccupations concerned Americans (who) expected
top priority over all other responsibilities. It never occurred to me
that we would be called upon in Algiers to deal with a continuous parade
of Very Important Persons -- or those who thought they were."

## Early Contacts with Algerian Nationalists

In Algeria as in Morocco, American officials met with nationalist
leaders. In November 1942, Murphy received Ferhat Abbas, later President
of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, in Algiers.
Abbas wanted to know how the U.S. would view an autonomous Algeria, and
Murphy -- ever the diplomat -- quoted himself in "Diplomat Among
Warriors" as having replied that "Americans were generally sympathetic
to all desires for independence, but present purposes in North Africa,
as elsewhere, were concentrated on defeating the Nazis. We hoped our
friends would join us in winning the war." In June 1943, OSS officer
Archie Roosevelt met Abbas in Constantine. Older Algerians remember
these years fondly as a demonstration that the French were not
all-powerful and that Algeria had friends.

## A Diplomatic Mission

Beginning in June 1943, diplomatic officers assigned to Algiers dealt
with the French Committee of National Liberation. Murphy was promoted to
Minister Resident, and Harold Macmillan arrived as his British
counterpart. Diplomatic activities moved to Paris after the U.S.
recognized General de Gaulle's Provisional Government in October 1944.

## Consulates in Bône and Oran

As part of the wartime buildup, American Consulates were opened in Bône
(now Annaba) and Oran in 1943. As the war came to an end, they were
quickly closed, Bône in 1944 and Oran in 1946.

## Expectations for the Future

A 1944 Algiers post report explained that "the importance of Algiers has
been greatly magnified since the landing of the Allied forces... and the
formation of the French Committee of National Liberation in June 1943.
Algiers became overnight the seat of government of the French Committee
and the capital of all French overseas possessions except Indo-China.
Diplomatic representatives, with the personal rank of Ambassador, were
accredited... by the British, Russian and American governments and these
were soon followed by diplomatic delegates from many of the neutral and
Untied Nations. In addition, Algiers remains the seat of Allied Force
Headquarters for the Mediterranean Area... Upon the establishment of the
American Mission to the French Committee of National Liberation on
November 22, 1943, the Consulate General was consolidated with the
Diplomatic Mission... When the diplomatic mission moves to France, it is
assumed that the Consulate General in Algiers will again become an
independent Foreign Service establishment and that it will assume a
position of importance even greater than before the war. Politically,
the people of Algeria will be more conscious of the importance of their
participation and responsibility in the direction of the affairs of
Metropolitan France. Commercially, Algeria will assume an even more
important position in the world trade since production has increased in
this French possession following the Allied occupation in 1942 and new
markets for its exports have been developed abroad."

## Repatriation of War Dead

One sequel of the war was the repatriation of the remains of some 1,000
American soldiers killed in the course of Allied operations in Algeria.
This was accomplished in 1948. As a consequence, no American war dead
are buried in Allied cemeteries in Algeria.

# 1945-1962: The Wolves in the City

From 1945 to 1962, the Consulate General, now a relatively large
establishment, indeed did become more important, but not, as the 1944
post report predicted, because Algeria strengthened its ties with
France. On the contrary, beginning with the Sétif uprising of 1945, the
Algerian people began a long struggle that erupted into armed conflict
in 1954 and resulted in independence in 1962. Throughout this period,
the Consulate General was an important listening post and channel of
communication with both French and Algerian leaders.

## Acquisition of Montfeld

Fortunately, before the atmosphere soured, the U.S. Government acted to
acquire two properties, greatly facilitating future operations. In 1947,
Consul General Harold Finely needed a new residence. Montfeld, then
owned by a French family under a cloud for its politics before and
during the war, was up for sale. The French Government agreed to buy it
for the U.S. Government in exchange for an equivalent amount of surplus
military equipment. Finley took up residence in 1948.

## Acquisition of Mustapha Raïs

In 1948, the U.S. Government bought the historic Mustapha Raïs property
across the street from the Hotel St. George (now the Hotel El Djazaïr),
which it intended to use eventually as the site of new and larger
offices. This was put off and, in 1964, the government of newly
independent Algeria seized the property, creating a dispute that was not
settled until 1983.

## French Complaints

As early as 1949, the Consulate General found itself caught between the
Algerian nationalists and the French administration. French Governor
General Naegelen wrote in his memoirs, "Mission en Algérie" (Paris,
1962), that "my difficulties with the representatives of the United
States of America were serious. It was a question of getting the
official agents of a great allied power to stop giving Algerian
nationalists a kind of guaranty and moral support. We had seen for
months that the U.S. Consulate in Algiers was growing continuously.
Cultural counselors, economic counselors, etc. came to swell its ranks.
It was taking on the significance of a true Embassy. The Consul General
(George Tait) corresponded directly to Washington, no through the
Ambassador in Paris. We learned that the Vice Consul, a young man full
of self-assurance and mettle, was having frequent meetings with the most
active nationalist militants... These latter went so far as to claim
that they could henceforth count on the moral and material support of
the United States."

When Naeglen complained, the Consul General told him that it was his
duty to keep Washington informed. Eventually, by seeking the
intervention of his good friend, Ambassador Bruce in Paris, Naegelen got
both the Vice Consul and the Consul General removed. In his memoirs,
Naegelen recounted with some satisfaction that, in his farewell call,
Tait told him "we're being sent into the fog, the Rotterdam," and that,
in his introductory call, the new Consul General (Thomas H. Lockett) had
assured him "he would obtain all his information from me" and discipline
his subordinates accordingly.

## JFK Speaks Out

In 1957, for the first time, the Algerian questions entered American
politics. On June 11, Secretary of State Dulles stated that the U.S.
would not put pressure on France regarding Algeria and that arms
shipments would continue in the framework of existing agreements. On
July 2, Senator John F. Kennedy gave a speech in the Senate on
"Imperialism -- the Enemy of Freedom" and introduced a resolution of
support for Algerian independence. On July 8, in a second speech, he
defended himself against French and American criticism of his stance,
noting that "the Algerian situation is a deadly time bomb." Because of
theses statements, President Kennedy has always been warmly remembered
in Algeria, and the main square of El Biar is named in his honor.

## French Settlers Attack Facilities

Rising tensions over Algeria made the U.S. a focus for the frustrations
of French settlers. On May 13, 1958, the USIS Cultural Center at 36, rue
Michelet (now rue Didouche Mourad) was invaded by demonstrators who
caused severe damage to the premises, furniture, and publications. The
French Government eventually paid \$900 in damages. Yves Courrière,
writing in "L'heure des colonels" (Paris, 1970) described the scene
thus : "The march started off from the University toward the Monument to
the War Dead, a distance of 500 meters. This did not prevent a small
commando force from going back up rue Michelet to sack the American
Cultural Center. All revolutions since 1945 have started this way, most
of the time because the insurgents find the Americans to be reactionary.
Here, it is the opposite. In Algiers, Americans are the enemy 'on the
left'... If they want communists at home, that's their business. Here,
we defend French Algeria, and we stone the Cultural Center."

Such sentiments were reinforced by the suspicions of many in the French
military that the U.S. had sought to humiliate France during the 1956
Suez War so as to take its place in the Middle East and North Africa and
seize the oil of the Sahara.

In January-February 1960, extremist settlers staged an uprising.
Insurgents held the university sector between rue Michelet and
Government headquarters. The Consulate General received a group
Meritorious Service Award from Secretary of State Herter for its
performance during this period; it is now on display in the Chancery
gallery.

On November 11, 1960, street fighting and rioting provoked by extremist
settlers led to the sacking of the USIS Cultural Center for the second
time in two and a half years. This time, the French Government paid
\$12,000 in damages.

On January 20, 1961 -- Inauguration Day in the U.S., a high explosive
charge was placed at the entrance to the building housing the Consulate
General at 119 ter, rue Michelet. Fortunately, the fuse burned out
before it detonated the charge. On April 6, however, a heavy charge of
high explosives did explode at the entrance shortly after the close of
business. From April 22 to 26, mutinous elements of the French Army
seized control of Algiers, and the Consulate General was unable to
communicate with the outside world.

## Consulate General Moves

As a result of this pattern of continuing disturbances downtown, the
Consulate General decided to seek office in a quieter neighborhood on
the heights of the city. In the second week of September 1961, it moved
to Villas Mektoub and Inchallah, which the Embassy occupies to this day.
On November 1, 1962, it leased the nearby Oued El Kilaï property as
well.

## Algerian-American Contacts

President Kennedy adopted a clear policy of support for Algerian
independence after his inauguration in 1961, and high-level meetings
between American and Algerian officials intensified as Algeria moved
toward independence. In October 1961, Assistant Secretary of State G.
Mennen Williams met in Tunis with Saad Dahlab and M'Hammed Yazid,
ministers of foreign affairs and information of the Provisional
Government of the Algerian Republic.

## Constantine and Oran Consulates Open

In anticipation of independence, the U.S. opened Consulates in
Constantine on June 7, 1962 and in Oran on Jun 11, 1962. USIS Cultural
Centers were also opened in the two cities in the course of 1963.

## Algerian Independence

On July 3, 1962, as Algerian independence was proclaimed, President
Kennedy declared that "this moment of national independence for the
Algerian people is both a solemn occasion and one of great joy... It is
with special pride that I extend the good wishes of the American people
to the people of Algeria. In the coming days, we wish to strengthen and
multiply the American bonds of friendship with the Government and people
of Algeria. We look forward to working together with you in the cause of
freedom, peace and human welfare."

# 1962-1973: A difficult Beginning

On September 29, 1962, the U.S. Formally recognized Algeria, and the
Consulate General was elevated to the rank of Embassy. From 1962 to the
present -- with an interlude as the American Interests Section of the
Embassy of Switzerland from 1967 to 1974 -- this Embassy has been
responsible for the conduct of relations with independent Algeria.

## From the White House to Havana

The first few years of independence saw correct, but not particularly
cordial, relations. In October 1962, President Kennedy received
President Ben Bella at the White House; he was the first foreign chief
of state to be given an official welcome at a ceremony on the South
Lawn. Ben Bella chose, however to go on to Cuba, where he joined Fidel
Castro in a call for the evacuation of the Guantanamo naval base just as
the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba was being confirmed.

In 1963, the Algerian Government nationalized agricultural lands
abandoned by French settlers and other foreigners. This led a number of
American citizens to file claims for compensation. In 1964, the Algerian
Government seized and sealed the Mustapha Raïs property, which the U.S.
Government owned, possibly because it feared the U.S. intended to
demolish the historic villa to build a new chancery. This created an
official property dispute that went unresolved until 1983, when the U.S.
Government obtained title to the Oued El Kilaï property in exchange.

## Early Assistance to Algeria

Algeria very quickly came to need food assistance, and the U.S. began
making it available, even though Ben Bella's trip to Cuba had put a pall
on political relations. After the Algerian Government's property
seizures of 1963 and 1964, discussions of agricultural assistance
programs were complicated by the 1965 "Hickenlooper Amendment" that
called for suspension of aid to countries that failed to settle property
claims. The Algerian Government refused to act because of its fear that
this would set a precedent for much larger numbers of French claims.

As a result, official agricultural assistance was set aside in favor of
humanitarian aid such as medical programs (MEDICO eye clinic at Beni
Messous Hospital), Food for Peace grants to help relieve the food
deficit and create jobs through CARE, World Church Service, and Catholic
Relief Services, and scholarships. An agricultural commodities agreement
was signed in February 1966, but in May 1967 the Algerian Government
announced that it was breaking off discussions on a loan to buy 200,000
tons of wheat from the U.S. because of "political pressures" from
Washington. In fact, the issue of property claims had arisen again.
Nonetheless, overall assistance in this period was significant; Food for
Peace grants alone totaled \$180 million from 1962 to 1967.

## Political Chill Sets In

After the June 1965 "Corrective Movement" toppled President Ben Bella
and brought President Boumediene to power, the U.S. and Algeria found
themselves increasingly at loggerheads on a variety of political issues.
In 1965 and 1966, several demonstrations protesting American policy in
Vietnam were held outside the Embassy.

## Constantine Center Closed

In August 1966, the prickly side of newly independent Algeria came to
the fore again when it ordered the USIS Cultural Center in Constantine
closed for "spreading anti-government propaganda." The truth of the
matter was that a Quaker volunteer had accidentally borrowed an
out-of-circulation documentary with footage of former President Ben
Bella and showed it in a mountain village near Skikda. News of the
incident reached President Boumediene within 24 hours, and he ordered
the Center closed.

## Diplomatic Relations Broken

Egyptian President Nasser's allegations that the U.S. had provided
direct support for the Israeli attack in the June War of 1967 led to a
rupture of diplomatic relations. On June 5, demonstrators protested
outside the Embassy, and a crowd of several thousand sacked the downtown
USIS Cultural Center at 5b, rue Eugène Deshayes (now rue Sid Ali
Bouziri); it closed, never to reopen again at that location. On June 6,
Algeria broke relations with the U.S. On June 9, the Algerian Government
agreed that the Embassy of Switzerland could represent U.S. interests.
On June 10, evacuation of all but minimum essential personnel was
accelerated. On December 11, the Algerian Government agreed that the
American Interests Section could retain five diplomatic and eight
non-diplomatic American employees to perform consular, commercial, and
cultural functions from offices in the former Chancery. State and USIA
remained the only agencies represented at post; the Defense Attaché
Office and the Marine Security Guard Detachment ceased operations. The
Consulate in Oran remained open, but the USIS Cultural Center in that
city was closed and remains so to this day.

## Algerian Diplomacy Ascendant

The years from 1967 to 1975 were the epic period of Algeria's activist
radical diplomacy. Algiers hosted a series of third world events: a
conference of the G-77 group of developing states (1967); an OAU summit
(1968); the first Pan-African Cultural Festival (1973); the sixth Arab
summit (1973); and an OPEC summit (1975). Concurrently, the Algerian
Government promoted the "New International Economic Order," opened
relations with a wide range of radical states, and authorized liberation
movements from the four corners of the earth to open offices in Algiers.
In 1970, President Boumediene allowed a Black Panther information office
to open in Algeria and gave Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis permission
to live in Algiers despite the fact that the movement had hijacked an
aircraft from the U.S. to Algeria. This office remained in operation
until late 1972.

## Presence Further Reduced

This climate exacerbated differences on numerous political issues, and
further symbolic steps to restrict relations were taken. Christian
welfare workers of the North Africa Mission and the Methodist Church
were asked to leave. In 1970, MEDICO and CARE operations in Algeria were
closed and their American personnel expelled on undocumented charges of
interference in internal Algerian affairs.

## Constantine Consulate Closed

On February 19, 1972, the Consulate in Constantine was closed, following
a request from the regional military commander, who lived next door,
that the premises be vacated, since they were in a "military security
area." The officer in question, Colonel Mohamed Benahmed Abdelghani,
rose to become Prime Minister from 1979 to 1984.

## Commercial Relations Blossom

In the heat of the June War, the Algerian Government suspended the sale
of oil to the U.S. and placed American oil companies under state
control. At the 1967 Khartoum Summit, it also announced the
nationalization of the five American companies distributing oil products
in Algeria.

Having established the principle of state control over the energy
sector, however, Algeria moved to implement a conscious two-track
policy, maintaining chilly political relations while seeking to benefit
from American economic and technical expertise. As early as 1966, the
Algerian Government had permitted SONATRACH to contract with U.S.
engineering, management, and consulting firms -- including Bechtel;
Booz, Allen, and Hamilton; Arthur D. Little; Sherman, Sterling and
Wright; and others -- in a deliberate effort to break the French
stranglehold on Algerian hydrocarbons development and marketing.
Outstanding disputes with American oil companies were settled in 1971.
In 1973, for the first time, the U.S. participated in the Algiers
International Fair; SONATRACH had many students in American
universities; the Ford Foundation was providing technical assistance in
agriculture; and IVS had 26 volunteers in the country.

## Gas Cooperation

A high point in commercial relations was reached in 1969, when, as a
further step in diversifying Algeria's energy relations away from
France, SONATRACH and El Paso signed the El Paso I contract for major
sales of Algerian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the U.S. upon
completion of ambitious new LNG plants in Arzew, near Oran. In 1973, the
construction of the first such plant, LNG-1, was entrusted to the
American company Chemico.

## An Astronaut Visits

Consistent with its policy of "friendship for the American people"
despite political differences with the U.S. Government, the Algerian
Government received Frank Borman at a high level in August 1970. A
tablet at Our Lady of Africa, a church dedicated to wayfarers,
commemorates his visit.

# 1973-1991: A period of Pragmatism

## Relations Restored

The October War of 1973 initially led Algeria to observe a five-month
embargo on oil exports to the U.S., but Secretary of State Kissinger's
lightning visit to Algiers in December 1973 to explain his plans for
Arab-Israeli disengagement talks resulted in agreement in principle to
resume relations at a later date. President Boumediene visited President
Nixon on the margins of a U.N. meeting in April 1974, and Kissinger
returned to Algiers in April and October 1974 to seek Boumediene's
support for his Middle East shuttle diplomacy. On November 11, 1974,
after over seven years of rupture, Algeria reestablished relations with
the U.S. and the American Interests Section gave way to the Embassy.

## Political Relations Initially Cool

In the immediate aftermath of the resumption of relations, political
relations did not move beyond a cool correctness. This was due in part
to the occurrence of the Green March by which Morocco, seen as an ally
of the U.S., took over the Western Sahara in 1975. The diplomatic
community lived in a cold war ambiance. Public Affairs Officer Howard
Simpson described on amusing 1976 incident in a March 1991 article in
the Foreign Service Journal:

> Algeria, in all its revolutionary glory, was a playground for Eastern
> Bloc diplomats who eyed our small operation with disfavor and
> suspicion.
>
> One hot morning I drove through the White City to visit the director
> of the Soviet Cultural Center at his office. He was a bearded, affable
> giant with a slight knowledge of English... It soon became obvious
> that I was to endure the standard "trial by vodka," a typical Soviet
> ploy. Although it was only 11:30 a.m., a secretary appeared bearing a
> large tray of open-face sandwiches of fish paté and three kinds of
> vodka.
>
> I'm not sure what my Soviet host wanted to know, but he appeared
> fascinated by the miniscule size of our staff. Such information was
> readily available from the diplomatic list, but he returned to the
> subject time and time again... Throughout our conversations, the
> glasses were refilled. I first became aware that the Algerian heat and
> the vodka were affecting the director was by the strange angle of his
> spectacles. He then began to complain about his past assignments and
> grumble about life in Algiers. By 1:30 p.m. his glasses were
> dangerously askew, and he had a sprinkling of breadcrumbs on his
> beard. It was time to go.
>
> This proved difficult. His staff and left for lunch as we knocked back
> the vodka and munched the salty sandwiches. They had also locked us
> in, and the director could not fine his own set of keys... My host was
> particularly grim-faced when he was forced to call the security office
> at his embassy for assistance... The young, crop-haired security man
> who unlocked the doors for us saw no humor in the situation, nor did
> the perspiring director. From that moment on, he made a special effort
> to avoid me at all official functions.

## Commercial Relations Bear Fruit

American companies won major contracts in the period after 1974. Bechtel
replaced Chemico as prime contractor for LNG-1; Pullman-Kellogg was
awarded the contract for LNG-2; GTE was hired to build an electronics
plant in Sidi Bel Abbès; the Educational Development Center of Boston
and the Institute of Gas Technology of Chicago staffed electronics and
gas institutes. Boeing began selling aircraft to Air Algérie in 1977;
these form the bulk of its fleet today. SONATRACH sent thousands of
students to the U.S., and the Ministry of Higher Education followed suit
in a more modest way.

## Bedjedid Succeeds Boumediene

President Boumediene died in December 1978 following a long illness in
whose treatment extensive American medical resources, including a
portable CAT scanner, were mobilized to no avail. Secretary of the
Treasury Blumenthal, Chip Carter, and Mohammed Ali were among the large
delegation that President Carter sent to his funeral. The election of
President Bendjedid in early 1979 led to the consolidation of a new
phase of pragmatic relations that had begun under his predecessor.

## Military Sales Begin

As part of the normalization of relations, the Defense Attaché Office,
closed in 1967, was reopened in August 1979. In the course of 1980 and
1981, sales of Lockheed L-100 transport aircraft to Air Algérie were
followed by commercial sales of their C-130 military equivalents to the
Algerian Air Force. These were the first sales of military equipment to
Algeria made since independence.

## Disaster Assistance

In late 1980, the U.S. provided \$4 million in disaster relief
assistance in the wake of the October 10 earthquake at El Asnam (now
Chliff), which registered at 7.2 on the Richter scale. American military
units from Europe set up mobile communications in the Montreld garden.
The numerous relief flights operated into Houari Boumediene Airport gave
the Algerian military an impressive glimpse of American airlift
capabilities.

## Tehran Hostage Negotiations

In November 1979, at the 35^th^ anniversary celebrations of the Algerian
Revolution, National Security Adviser Brzezinski met with Prime Minister
Bazargan of Iran to discuss the future of Iranian-American relations.
Three days later, Embassy Tehran was occupied, thereby triggering the
Tehran hostage crisis. In late 1980 and early 1981, Algeria, in an
application of brilliant diplomacy, mediated resolution of this crisis.
Signature of the Algiers Accords on January 19, 1981 by Deputy Secretary
of State Christopher and Foreign Minister Benyahia led to the release of
the hostages and their arrival in Algiers on January 20, 1981, hours
after the inauguration of President Reagan. The Embassy received a group
Certificate of Appreciation from Secretary of State Haig for its support
of these negotiations; it is now on display in the Chancery gallery.

## Visits Exchanged and Agreements Signed

The process of improving political relations was marked by a series of
high level meetings and visits and by signature of a member of
agreements. These both provided impetus and served as benchmarks for the
process of normalization.

In October 1981, President Bendjedid met President Reagan in Cancun.

In December 1982, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge visited
Algiers.

In September 1983, Vice President Bush visited Algiers.

In October 1983, and agreement resolving the longstanding dispute over
the Mustapha Raïs property was reached. As a result, the U.S. Government
acquired title to the Oued El Kilaï property.

In February 1984, a five year Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation
and Trade in Agriculture was signed.

In April 1985, President Bendjedid made a state visit to the U.S. One
major focus was agriculture. During that visit, the two countries signed
an agreement establishing the U.S.-Algerian Joint Commission for
Economic, Technical and Technological Cooperation and initialed a
cultural agreement that was signed in June 1987 and entered into force
in October 1988.

In September 1985, to open the way to military assistance, agreements on
the General Security of Military Information (GSOMIA) and International
Military Education and Training (IMET) were signed.

In April 1986, the Joint Commission met for the first time in Algiers.

In December 1986, a consular convention was initialed. It was signed in
January 1989 and submitted to the Algerian assembly for ratification in
February 1990. This has yet to occur.

In March 1987, former President Carter visited Algiers to inaugurate the
Friendship Forest Park, donated by a group of Americans as a token of
appreciation for Algeria's role in the Tehran hostage negotiations.

In April 1989, the Joint Commission met for the second time in
Washington. An OPIC private investment insurance agreement was initialed
during that meeting; it was signed in June 1990 and entered into force
in October of that year.

## Growth in Programs and Staff

The improvement in political relations achieved through threes visits
and agreements had a direct impact on programs and staffing. Mission
staffing increased from 26 in 1981 to 46 in 1988.

In August 1980, shortly after its establishment, the Foreign Commercial
Services of the Department of Commerce assigned its first officer in
Algiers.

In September 1982, the Algerian Government approved the return of a
Marine Security Guard Detachment to the Embassy. Around that time, a
Regional Security Officer was assigned as well.

In April 1985, President Reagan authorized FMS sales of defense articles
and services to Algeria on a cash basis, and, in September 1985, the
Department of Defense began providing small annual credit for military
education and training (IMET) by the Algerian armed forces. The Defense
Security Assistance Agency provided an augmentee to the Defense Attaché
Office to help manage these programs beginning in March 1986.

In September 1985, the U.S. Feed Grains Council opened an office in
Algiers, and in 1988, Council contractors began building two model
farms, one for sheep and poultry meat and eggs in Biskra and one for
beef and dairy products near Annaba.

In November 1985, after several years of expanding program
opportunities, particularly in the realm of English teaching, USIS
leased a building at 8, rue Ali Messaoud (formerly rue de Savoie) in
Hydra as its first off-compound center since 1967.

In August 1986, the Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural
Service opened an Agricultural Trade Office in Algiers to manage a
program of agricultural credit guarantees and export enhancement
programs designed to promote the sale of agricultural commodities to
Algiers. This program has, in recent years, grown to be the second
largest in the world.

## LNG: The U.S. Market Reestablished

The eastern U.S. has always been the natural market for Algerian LNG.
The first deliveries under the El Paso I contract were made in 1978.
U.S. Government regulatory authorities had approved two other contracts
with Distrigas of Boston and Panhandle, and two other, El Paso II and
Tenneco, were awaiting approval.

In late 1978, because of changes on the international energy scene that
made Algerian LNG pricing non-competitive, the U.S. Government
regulatory authorities disapproved the last two contracts, and Algeria
moved to renegotiate El Paso I. El Paso suspended purchases in 1981 and
eventually went bankrupt. Distrigas and Panhandle suspended their own
purchases shortly thereafter, ending Algerian LNG sales to the U.S.
until 1988.

In late 1988, Distrigas/Cabot and SONATRACH reached agreement on a new
contract for deliveries to Boston. Contracts with Panhandle/Trunkline
for Lake Charles, Louisiana and Columbia Gas/Shell for Cove Point,
Maryland have followed.

## Focus on Reforms

Since the 1988 disturbances that rocked the country, the Algerian
Government has embarked on a sweeping program of political and economic
reforms intended to transform Algeria from a on-party socialist state to
a multi-party democracy with a market economy. U.S. support has been
both political and economic, with a focus on expanding agricultural
credit guarantees, working with USAID to find discrete new areas of
technical assistance (housing, population, agriculture), and working
with official and commercial lenders and potential private investors.

ANADARKO Corporation has enter into the first new joint venture in oil
exploration; Bechtel has been engaged to revamp LNG-1; and
Pullman-Kellogg has been hired to revamp LNG-2.

## The Gulf War

Algeria and the U.S. stayed in close touch during Algeria's unsuccessful
efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Gulf crisis from August 1990
to January 1991. Public opinion was strongly pro-Iraqi, and
demonstrations occurred periodically in front of the Chancery. The
approach and opening of hostilities triggered a heavy press campaign
against the U.S., and numerous rallies were held in Algiers, but the
authorities kept them away from the Chancery. In the end, the war does
not seem to have done lasting damage to the bilateral relationship.

# Appendix

# Post Premises Through the Years

Until 1911, American representatives abroad, except for the most senior,
were obliged to lease their own offices and homes. In 1911, the Lowden
Act permitted the U.S. Government to acquire sites and buildings for
offices and living quarters.

## Algiers

### 1785-1830: Town and Country

In Turkish times, the Consuls of Algiers typically rented two
properties, one in the city and one in the country suburbs. The first
was usually a house rented from the Regency itself or from a wealthy
Turk, Kouloughli (Turco-Algerian), or Moor. By custom, it was near the
Great Mosque and the Admiralty Gate, usually on the rue des Consuls, the
last street of the lower Casbah before the shore. The protocol
surrounding these houses was very strict. The Dey did not permit Consuls
to fly their flags; on the other hand, he provided them with a janissary
guard and a dragoman who served as an interpreter and fixer.

The second property was a country house or garden (djenane) usually
rented from a wealthy citizen in the Valley of the Consuls (beyond the
present site of Our Lady of Africa) or on the heights of El Biar. Here,
a Consul could fly his flag.

#### 1796: New Year's Ruckus in Town

Treaty negotiator Joseph Donaldson (1795-96) had some trouble at home on
New Year's Eve. American captives invaded his house, proclaiming that it
belonged to the public treasury and that they intended to stay rather
than return to the bagnios (captives' quarters). Donaldson called in
Moorish taskmasters to beat them back!

#### 1796: Two Houses Justified

The first American envoy who seems to have rented two properties was
treaty negotiator Joel Barlow (1796-97), who wrote Secretary of State
Pickering that "a Consul is obliged to... have two Houses, one in town
and one in the Country, the first for Business and residence in time of
health, and the other as a retreat in times of the Plague, and a place
where he can keep his cows and other cattle and make his wine and Garden
stuff."

#### 1797: Two Houses Accepted

The first resident American Consul General arrived in 1797, and he and
subsequent envoys seem to have settled comfortably into the two-property
practice.

#### 1808: Romantic Country Houses

Two sources confirm that the American Consul General had a country house
in the Valley of the Consuls in the first decade of the 19^th^ century.
Mrs. Broughton, the daughter of the British consul in the 1806-12
period, noted in her "Six Years' Residence in Algiers" (London, 1839)
that "a road leads up to the country houses of my sister and of the
American consul. It was a beautifully romantic pass to ascend, and we
did the whole way to both of them."

The diary of the Consulate General in 1935, noted that "this morning I
went with Mr. Fallot to visit what he thought was the American Garden in
1808... It was a fascinating old Moorish villa and quite untouched. On
the gatepost is "Le Consulate". The old lady who lives there, the wife
of a French general, said that she had lived there all her life and was
positive that the villa was the residence of the British Consul General.
Mr. Fallot said that the General had told him that the villa was the
residence of the American Consul General in 1808, in which case Colonel
Tobias Lear would have resided there. Mr. Fallot, who is eighty years
old at least, said that old ladies have a way of getting things mixed."

#### 1809: Party Time

Meanwhile, the American Consulate General in town was evidently quite
the address. Mrs. Blanckley, the British Consul's wife, wrote in her
journal: "A masked ball at the American consul's. I went as a black
woman, in the complete dress of a Moorish slave."

#### 1825: Fancy Digs in Town

Consul General William Shaler was renting a luxurious Moorish town house
from the heirs of Dey Mustapha Pacha in 1825. Its cost was estimated at
\$100,000 (about \$520,000 in 1991 dollars), and its rent was \$250 a
year (about \$1,300 in 1991). In his "Sketches of Algiers" (Boston,
1826), Shaler gave a complete description:

> This house is a square of about 64 feet, with a depth, or elevation,
> of 42 feet, one third of which is occupied by the basement story,
> consisting of a range of magazines, of cisterns, of stables, and of
> the solid arches necessary to support the superstructure. The
> remaining 28 feet of elevation are divided into two habitable stories,
> surrounding an open court paved with marble 30 feet square, around
> which is a covered gallery six feet wide, taken from the above 30
> feet, and supported upon each floor by 12 very elegant columns of
> Italian marble, of the Ionic order, which serve on each as abutments
> to twelve elliptical arches, and thus form round the court a double
> colonnade of great elegance and beauty. The roof is flat, and terrace,
> with a parapet of about four and half feet high; and on the side
> fronting the sea, there is a third covered gallery, where there are
> several small apartments.
>
> From the width of the court, the apartments of this mansion which
> front upon its four sides, are narrow and long beyond all proportion:
> they are well enough calculated for this climate, but would be found
> very inconvenient in a colder country. Two sides of this house front
> the sea, where there are external windows, but generally the
> apartments in the houses of Algiers are lighted only from the court,
> external windows not being permitted when they overlook other houses.
> All windows... are guarded by strong iron grates, which give to these
> dwellings the gloomy air of prisons. In houses where good and
> capacious cisterns are constructed, water enough for the ordinary use
> of a family is obtained by the terraces during the season of rain.
> This house, like most others of its rank in Algiers, has a second
> small one, dependent upon it, within its walls, but in other respects
> completely separate; it may be assigned exclusively to the women, to a
> dependent family, or a married son: in the general economy here, it
> affords convenient space for kitchen, offices, baths, etc.
>
> This house is entered by only one external door, which is solid and
> strong as that of a fortress, so that the family inhabiting it, have
> everything within themselves, without fear of intrusion. All the
> floors are paved with marble, or the Dutch painted tiles, and the
> walls of the apartments are covered, to the height of about four feet,
> with the same species of tiles of a finer quality.
>
> In all the houses of Algiers, there is contrived a small apartment at
> the outer door, and without the area of the house, where the host
> receives visits, and transacts business; as, on account of the women,
> no stranger is ever received within his domicile, except on
> extraordinary occasions. This apartment is called the skiffa, and in
> this house is spacious and elegant. The Exterior of all the houses in
> Algiers is kept neatly whitewashed, which at a distance, gives a very
> brilliant appearance to the city."

Shaler's location on the sea caused problems during the British
bombardment of 1816; when it was over, the upper part of the house was
in ruins, and five shells had burst within its walls.

Well before the Vienna Convention, Shaler had to defend the
inviolability of his premises. In 1823, after a Kabyle-Turkish clash in
Bejaia, the Dey had ordered the consuls to turn over all their Kabyle
employees. Several consulates were violated and the Kabyles dragged out.
Shaler refused to turn his Kabyle employees over, but, happily, his
house was not entered.

#### 1827: Summer Heat

Shaler's assistant, William Hodgson, rented a country house to escape
the summer heat of the city. He was evidently a delicate soul; in April,
he wrote that "the withering heat of summer (sic) forbids me to move
abroad by day." He added that the inclement weather made it difficult to
carry on his studies or perform his official duties.

Shaler himself had a small garden plot in the Valley of the Consuls.
This was described in Edouard Dalles' "Alger -- Bou-Farik -- Blidah et
leurs environs" (Algiers, 1888): "The U.S. Consulate (today the Campagne
Santelli) is located bit above the east of Our Lady of Africa. A pretty
cactus hedge still surrounds it, just as when Mr. Shaler lived there."

#### 1830: A Handy Flag

Just before the French occupation, Consul General Henry Lee also had a
country house in the Valley of the Consuls. In "A Handbook for Travelers
in Algeria and Tunis" (London, 1887), Col. R. Lambert Playfair described
it as "opposite to (the old French consulate), on the south side of the
road." It was from this house that Lee transferred his flag to the Ben
Taleb garden at the top of the hill, which the consuls of Algiers had
rented as a joint refuge from the fighting. This is now the site of the
Bouzareah Observatory.

#### 1991: A footnote

The sites of both the town and country houses of the early Consuls
General are now completely altered. The lower Casbah was rebuilt in the
19^th^ century and razed in the 20^th^, and the site of the rue des
Consuls can only be approximated. The Valley of the Consuls for its part
seems to have remained rural in character well into the 20^th^ century.
In recent decades, however, it has fallen victim to Algeria's explosion
of population and construction, and it is hard for the visitor to
imagine the tranquility for which it was once renowned. The old French
and British country houses can still be identified; the former is on the
grounds of a public school at 26, avenue Ouarak Ali, while the latter is
on the grounds of another public school further west and above an old
French fort. The site of the American country house of 1830, however, is
no longer evident, although at least two old buildings from the Turkish
period survive in the concrete jungle; one of them may have been the
house in question.

### 1830-1913: Frequent Moves

Until 1911, Consuls had to obtain their own offices and residences. In
Algiers, this tended to mean short leases; the average office lease was
five years. After 1911, the U.S. Government began to contract for
offices and residences, and leases lengthened.

Thus, in the decades after the French occupation, the Consulate moved
repeatedly, generally following the city's expansion to the southeast.
Most of the buildings it occupied still stand.

The following locations have been identified:

-   1832 -- rue des Consuls

-   1842 -- rue de la Porte Neuve (now rue Riah Rabah), in the upper
    Casbah.

-   1872 -- 50, rue de la Lyre (now rue Ahmed Bouzrina), between the St.
    Philip's Cathedral (now the Kethcaoua Mosque) and the Opera (now the
    National Theater).

-   1874 -- 4, rue d'Isly (now rue Larbi Ben M'Hidi), at the western end
    of the street five blocks from the Opera.

-   1881 -- 6, rue de Strasbourg (now rue Maître Popie), next to the
    Palace of Justice.

-   1887 -- 3, rue Roland de Bussy (now rue Adjutant Boubzari Mohamed),
    which intersects at 15, rue Larbi Ben M'Hidi.

-   1888 -- 12, rue du Hamma (now rue Said Bakel), in a building shared
    by the British Consulate three blocks from the Opera.

-   1891 -- 14, rue de Mogador (now rue Ali Hariched), which parallels
    rue Larbi Ben M'Hidi one block above.

-   1902 -- 15, rue d'Isly

-   1908 -- 64, rue d'Isly, next to the main Post Office.

-   1909 -- In 1909, the Consul lived at Villa du Rocher on chemins
    Shakespeare and des Crêtes (on the site of the Dar El Kef tower near
    the Bois de Boulogne); the Vice Consul lived in a seafront apartment
    a 9, boulevard Carnot (now boulevard Zirout Youcef); and the Deputy
    Consul lived in the downtown Agha quarter at 23, rue Hoche (now rue
    Zabana Ahmed).

### 1913-1961: Long Leases

After the Lowden Act of 1911 permitting the U.S. Government to lease or
buy properties, the consular premises moved much less frequently, but,
again, they followed the expansion of the city to the southwest. The
average office lease was 16 years.

#### 1913-25: On the Seafront

For 12 years, the Consulate occupied premises in a seafront building
behind the main Post Office at 30, boulevard Carnot.

In 1924, the Consul General lived at Villa Magnan at 159 rue Michelet,
somewhere above the Bardo Museum. Rue Michelet above 135 was renamed and
renumbered after the Second World War, so it is hard to determine the
site.

#### 1925-40: Across from the Police

For 15 years, the Consulate General was on the second floor of a
building several blocks east of the main Post Office at 1, rue Jean
Rameau (now rue Mustapha Bouhired), at the corner of boulevard Baudin
(now boulevard Colonel Amirouche), right across the intersection from
the main Police Station. A 1931 inspection report described it as
"central, being near the General Post Office and Telephone Office and
not far from the harbor, so that it is convenient for visitors and the
local public."

> In 1927, the Consul General resided at Villa Stilbrovin on the route
> de la Colonne Viorol (now presumably boulevard Souidani Boudjemaa);
> the Vice Consul lived at Villa Sidi Salah (now the Soviet Ambassador's
> Residence) on chemin Beaurepaire (now chemin Cheikh El Bachir El
> Ibrahimi).
>
> In 1936, the Consul General lived at Villa Ali Chérif (now an Algerian
> Government property occupied by former Foreign Minister Bouteflika) on
> chemin de la Rochelle near the Spanish and Turkish Ambassadors'
> Residences.

#### 1940-61: Near the Sacred Heart

For 21 years, the Consulate General occupied the premises in a building
at 119 ter, rue Michelet (now rue Didouche Mourad), near the Sacred
Heart Cathedral. This building was owned by the Guiauchain family that
also owned the Hotel St. George (now the Hotel El Djazaïr). At various
times, space on the 3^rd^, 4^th^, and 9^th^ floors was leased, as was
space in the adjacent building at 23, boulevard Marcel Duclos (now
boulevard Ibn El Khatib).

> Robert Murphy, President Roosevelt's Personal Representative from 1941
> to 1943, had his own offices on the top floor of the British Consulate
> on the seafront opposite the Admiralty at 6, boulevard Carnot.
>
> In 1942, the Consul General's Residence was "next door to the English
> Church" and had a Moorish-style living room.
>
> In 1947, Montfeld was purchased for the Consul General; it was
> occupied in 1948.

### 1961-Present: On the Heights

In 1961, the Consulate General decided to move. After a first attempt to
acquire the Clinique des Orangers, it obtained the adjacent buildings,
Villas Metoub and Inchallah, which remain the premises of the Chancery
to this day. The reason for the move were spelled out in an old
Consulate General Record Book: "In the second week of September, 1961,
Consul General Porter transferred the offices of the Consulate General
from 119 Rue Michelet (third and ninth floor apartments) to the Villa
Mektoub on the Chemin Beaurepaire. This change was deemed necessary for
representational and administrative purposes, as well as for reasons
connected with the turbulent conditions existing in Algiers, as well as
throughout the country. The offices at 119 Rue Michelet had suffered
from several bombing attacks carried out by the O.A.S., some of these
attacks being directed against the C.G. because of U.S. policies, while
others were aimed at other occupants of the building." In 1962, the
Embassy leased Oued El Kilaï as an annex; in 1983, the U.S. Government
acquired title to it.

## Oran

### 1943-46: A Wartime Consulate

Vice Consuls Leland Rounds and Ridgway Knight, both among the "Vice
Consuls" active as intelligence agents beginning in 1941, rented rooms
at the Grand Hotel on place de la Bastille (now place du Moghreb) even
before a Consulate was formally opened. From 1943 to 1946, a Consulate
was in formal operation, possibly out of these same rooms.

### 1962-Present: A Peacetime Consulate

A Consulate was opened in Oran just prior to Algerian Independence and
continues in operation to this day.

In August 1962, the U.S. Government leased a 28-room house on the
seafront at 25, rue Lamartine for use as a consular establishment and
principal officer's residence from Mr. Marc Perrin. The Consulate
occupies these premises to this day.

## Constantine

### 1962-72: A Consulate for a Decade

A Consulate was also opened in Constantine just prior to Algerian
independence. In 1972, it was closed at the request of the regional
military commander, who lived next door and asserted that the premises
were in a "military security area."

The combined offices and principal officer's residence were on rue Abane
Ramdane.

## Bône (Annaba)

A Consulate operated for under a year in Bône (Annaba) at the height of
Allied operations in North Africa. Nothing is know of its location.

# The U.S. and The French Occupation of 1830

The French Forces landed in 1830 at Sidi Ferruch (now Sidi Fredj), as
did a portion of the Allied forces in 1942. On June 29, fifteen days
into the campaign, French troops arrived on the heights of Bouzareah and
El Biar overlooking the Fort of the Emperor, the key to the defense of
Turkish Algiers. The French Consul was obviously an interested party;
the British Consul played a mediating role; the other Consuls, spurred
to neutrality because of renewed corsair activity in the years preceding
the French attack, sought to protect themselves from the fighting.
Several accounts record the role played by Consul General Henry Lee and
the country garden the consular corps had rented from the Ben Taleb
family for this purpose.

Camille Rousset, in "La conquête d'Alger" (Paris, 1880), described the
scene thus: "From the summit of the Vigie, the commanding general saw
the American flag at a distance of about one kilometer to the northeast.
In fact, this was the Consulate of the United States (sic), where the
representatives of all the European powers, with the exception of the
British Consul, had come with their families to fine refuge against the
hazards of war. Indeed, in spite of the good will of the commanding
general, two consular houses had to be occupied (Naples and Sweden); as
for the Consulate of the United States, General Achard sent a company of
the 14^th^ of the line as a guard of honor and protection."

The gathering of the Consuls in this manner had not been without its
problems. A. Berbrugger, in his article on "Les consuls d'Alger pendant
la conquête de 1830" (Revue Africaine, no. 9, 1865), reproduced a
memorandum signed by the various consuls: "We the undersigned, having
resolved to gather for the common safety in the Ben Taleb garden, rented
by us for this purpose, found that His Highness the Dey had approved
this resolution on condition that no flag be flown, since he did not
permit the flag of one country to fly in two places at once. This clause
appeared to us to be contrary to the purpose of our gathering, i.e.,
safety, and we resolved to propose to the Dey to remove the flag from
one of our country houses to place it at the meeting site. The Consul
General of the United States of America, in the interest and for the
good of this gathering, agreed to make this sacrifice, which was
facilitated by the proximity of his garden to the meeting place, and the
Dey approved. This being so, we commit ourselves to gather at the
aforementioned garden at our common expense and not to depart unless all
agree. (Signed) the Consul General of Spain, the Consul General of
Denmark, the Vice Consul of Sweden, the Consul General of Naples, the
Consul General of America, the Consul General of the Two Sicilies.

Berbrugger goes on to comment that "the European consuls, gathering in
this way at the same spot, were not acting just with the thought of
ensuring their personal security. They also wanted to show their entire
agreement on the question of the absolute neutrality that they intended
to observe in the war between France and the Algerians... On June 29,
before daybreak, our army got under way and advanced toward the Fort of
the Emperor. Mr. Bourmont, who was marching with the left wing, arrived
at la Vigie, on a culminating peak of Bouzareah, around 9 a.m. All of a
sudden, Algiers showed itself to his gaze. At his feet, next to the
marabout of Sidi Bennour, a flag, that of America, floated over the Ben
Taleb Garden, while others flew a bit lower, in the Valley of the
Consuls, where the consular houses of England, France, Belgium, and the
United States were grouped. General Achard was then sent with a
detachment of the 14^th^ to reconnoiter the Ben Taleb garden, which was
guarded by janissaries. He found the consuls of all the powers gathered
there with their families, except... that of England. Then general was
well received by these gentlemen, who gave him and his general staff
lunch. The consuls also confirmed their desire to remain completely
neutral in the struggle under way..."

# The Allied Landings of 1942

Operation Torch -- The Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria that
opened the way to the invasion of Europe from the south -- was executed
on November 8, 1942.

Algiers was viewed as the most important prize in either Algeria or
Morocco. It was a modern city with the best equipped port in North
Africa with the exception of Tunis and Alexandria. Port facilities were
crucial to the buildup of equipment and men that was necessary to
consolidate the Allies' hold on North Africa and pursue the war into
Sicily (Operation Husky) and Italy.

Secret preparations for the landings had continued over many months in
London and in Algiers, where Robert Murphy, President Roosevelt's
Personal Representative, worked with the Vichy French officers
sympathetic to the Allies to minimize resistance on the part of Vichy
French forces.

The central French figure in this coordination was General Charles Mast,
who sympathized with the anti-Vichy resistance. Murphy, Vice Consul
Ridgway Knight (who later became Ambassador to Syria, Belgium, and
Portugal), and Mast met with Generals Mark Clark and Lyman Lemnitzer on
October 21-23, 1942 to put the finishing touches on the invasion plans.
Clark and Lemnitzer were landed by submarine for this meeting at the
Teissier (or Sitgès) farm near the Messelmoun River 19 kilometers west
of Cherchell. Vichy police, alerted by suspicious servants to possible
smuggling, almost caught the plotters in the act, but Murphy, playing on
French sensibilities, convinced them he was receiving lady friends.

On November 4, Murphy told Mast of the precise date of the landings; at
0030 on November 8, he called on General Alphonse Juin, the Vichy French
military commander of North Africa at the Villa des Oliviers (now the
residence of the French Ambassador), to inform him and, with him,
Admiral Jean Darlan (one of Marshal Pétain's senior deputies at Vichy,
who happened to be in Algiers), of Allied plans. It was only be delicate
diplomacy that Murphy avoided arrest.

The Algerian portion of the landings was conducted by a mixed force of
49,000 American and 23,000 British soldiers. Of these, 33,000 landed in
Algiers and 31,000 in Oran.

The American nature of these forces was stressed wherever possible to
avoid exacerbating the feelings of British-French animosity that had
been inflamed by the destruction of elements of the Vichy French fleet
at Mers El Kebir by British units in 1940. In some situations, British
troops even masqueraded as Americans to minimize frictions.

The Algiers operations, under the overall command of Major General
Charles Ryder, took place beginning at 0100:

-   At Apple, composed of two beach sectors between the Mazafran River
    and Castiglione (now Bou Ismaïl), the landings were carried out by a
    task force of 8 ships that landed 7,000 British from the 11^th^
    Brigade of the 78^th^ Infantry Division, keeping the 36^th^ Brigade
    of this division in reserve. The landings went well, with only
    sporadic resistance. The first tasks of the British troops were to
    take and secure the Blida Airfield (now an Algerian air force base)
    and to occupy Birtouta on the Algiers-Blida road, thus cutting
    communications from Algiers to the south.

-   At Beer, composed of two beach sectors between La Madrague (now El
    Djemila) and Sidi Ferruch (now Sidi Fredi), as well as a stretch of
    rocky coast around Pointe Pescade (now Raïs Hamidou), the landings
    were carried out by a task force of 12 ships that "scramble landed"
    the British 6^th^ commando battalion on the rocky coast and landed
    10,000 Americans from the 168^th^ Regimental Combat Team of the
    34^th^ Infantry Division (originally an Iowa National Guard unit),
    as well as elements of the British 1^st^ commando Battalion, on the
    beaches. No resistance was met initially, but severe problems were
    encountered in landing troops. The British coxswains of some of the
    landing craft meant for the Beer sectors caused great confusion by
    mistakenly coming ashore at the Apple sectors. Military historians
    also note that 98 of 104 landing craft were lost in the operation.
    Some resistance eventually developed, causing casualties among some
    units. Nonetheless, the first task of these troops -- to assist the
    Apple forces in taking and securing Blida Airfield and join the
    Charlie forces in a pincer movement on Algiers -- were
    satisfactorily accomplished, although limited street fighting took
    place in El Biar when a Moroccan regiment attempted to stop the
    Allied forces from advancing into the city.

-   At Charlie, composed of four beach sectors between the Reghaia River
    and Jean-Bart (now El Marsa), the landings were carried out by a
    task force of 8 ships that landed 7,600 Americans from the 39^th^
    Regimental Combat Team of the 9^th^ Infantry Division and elements
    of the British 1^st^ Commando battalion. No resistance was met. The
    two sectors closest to Jean-Bart (Green and Blue) were used for
    troop landings, while the two sectors closest to the Reghaia River
    (Red 1 and Red 2) were used for landing vehicles. The latter
    operation began at daybreak and lasted until 1800. Military
    historians note that operations at the Charlie beaches, as at the
    Beer beaches, resulted in a high loss of landing craft. This was due
    to a variety of factors: poor design; high surf; overloading; and in
    many cases, a failure to close the loading ramps. In addition, the
    unloading operations themselves were rated as "poor." Nonetheless,
    the first task of units of the 39^th^ Regimental Combat Team -- to
    take and secure the Maison Blanche Airport (now Houari Boumediene
    Airport) -- was quickly accomplished; other units joined the Beer
    forces in the pincer movement on Algiers.

Meanwhile, the British destroyers HMS Broke and HMS Malcolm tried to
enter Algiers port carrying Americans of the 135^th^ Infantry Regiment
of the 34^th^ Division whose task was to secure the port facilities.
Beginning at 0220, the two ships met resistance from shore batteries.
HMS Malcolm was hit and retired. HMS Broke was also hit, but made it to
the Quai de Falaise on the eastern side of the port under heavy machine
gun fire, and at 0520 the troops on board disembarked. Vichy French
troops immediately surrounded them, and they were taken to a military
prison. At 0930, HMS Broke steamed out of the harbor, picked up a tow,
and then sank.

Similar landings took place under the command of Major General Lloyd
Fredenall around Oran at Marsa Bou Zadjar (Sector X), Les Andalouses
(Sector Y), and Arzew-Bethiouia (Sector Z).

At 1200, Admiral Darlan issued orders to Vichy French units to cease all
resistance. By 1900, all fighting had stopped.

In the late afternoon of November 8 and all day on November 9, German
aircraft conducted air raids on Allied ships off Algiers. One ship, the
Leedstown, sand in 20 fathoms (120 feet) southwest of Cape Matifou (now
Bordj El Bahri) in the Bay of Algiers. Two other ships were damaged.