Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-06-01
Who Will Be Boss
De GouIIe the Army?
Continued From First Page

Continued From First Page
ing the vote may be that brings
Gen. de Gaulle into Office, the
fact remains that his real power
lies not in the Chamber of
Deputies but in the support of
the French army. Behind all
the political Juror, the army
is the force which brought on
the crisis. It is the army alone
which will be responsible for
bringing Gen. de Gaulle to
power. And for the time being
at least, it is the army which
will keep him there, whatever
the Deputies may do.
There are some in France
and elsewhere who deduc from
this that the military will
therefore run the country and
dictate policy. Gen. de Gaulle,
they say, will be little more
than a puppet of the generals,
permanently at their mercy
and powerless to act without
their consent.
Little has happened so far,
however, to sustain this theory
Of a triumph of French mill
tarism over the republic. All
reliable evidence supports the
belief that the role of the army
In this affair has been basically
nonpolitical. To be sure, the
army. even more than most
Frenchmen, is heartily olsen
chanted with weakness, insta-
bility and paralysis that has
characterized French political
life for years. AS a solution,
however, they do not ask to
govern France. They ask SIM
ply that France be governed
and by someone whose orders
they can respect and obey.
The hope today is that the
army would support whole
heartedly virtually any orders
which Gen. de Gaulle may give
them including, if necessary. a
drastic retrenchment of the
French position in Algeria.
handspring Of Strength
If the army, then, is the
handspring of Gen. de Gaulle' S
strength, the people themselves
are the source of his weakness.
Whatever may develop over
the coming months. Gen. de
Gaulle is not today by any
stretch of the IMAGINATION the
popular choice for France. On
a number of occasions. the
country's political leaders have
formally registered their oppo-
Sition to the man and the kind
Of government which he pro-
poses. And though it is a tru-
ism that political leaders here
rarely speak for a ajority OF
the people. the present case
seems to be the exception.
The exact proportions are
anybody's guess. But it seems
probable that at least half of
the people still oppose the
course on which France has
embarked. OF the rest. many
are merely resigned to the idea
that under the circumstances
there is no other course open.
Those who today fervently
support his cause are those who
for one reason or another iden-
tify Gen. de Gaulle with their
own special causes. Since this
group presently includes peo-
pie of absolutely contradictory
interests, It represents very
little in terms of real political
power.
He Stands to Lose
The ambiguous, almost ora
cular quality of Gen. de
Gaulle's recent statements is
responsible for the fact that
such directly opposed groups as
the Algerian "Colons" and the
TuniSian government look
hopefully toward his aSsump-
ton of power. But though this
quality of belonging Ito no one
and to everyone" may have
helped him up to this point,
1t is inevitable in the very ma
ture of things that the advan-
tage will be short lived. With
his first official act. Gen. de
Gaulle will lose some percent
age of his present civilian sup
port. In the end. if any of his
now fervent fans are still
around at all they will be SO
insignificant a force as to be
safely ignored.
On the face of things, there
fore. Gen. de Gaulle would
come to power in a singularly
unfettered condition. Neither
the army nor his extremist
civilian partisans seem likely
to color decisively the COM
plexion of his regime. For the
short term, at least, the gen.
eral should be able to cope
with the immediate problems
that confront the country as
his own judgment and the
reality of Frances interests
may dictate.
For the longer term, pros
poets are less bright from the
generals standpoint. 1t is pos
sible. Of course. that brilliant
performance in Algeria and in
reforming the French Consti-
tuition could do thu trick But