Evening star., 1961-04-28
CRISIS
Continued From First Pi

Continued FROM F1rst rage
end Of the rebellion some COM
mentators in the United States
have been very quick to con-
gratulate the administration
for having saved De Gaulle.
There was a time, or so it
seemed to foreign observers,
when an appeal for help was
not entirely out of the ques-
ton. But now that the danger
has passed it is perhaps not
entirely unnatural that French
men should resent the sugges-
ton that the situation was in
fact saved by outsiders.
Few now would admit that
things had reached the point
where it was thinkable that
foreign troops should be called
in to fight the French Army.
The admission would amount to
a humiliation of French ma
tional pride that Gen. de
Gaulle, for one, would be the
last to accept.
On this score the resentment
that exists no doubt will pass.
But the other persistent idea
that somehow or other Ameri-
can intelligence services were
behind" the generals revolt
is gaining "a shockingly large
audience among people who
should know much better.
Red Issue Raised
This idea, implausible as it
may seem, started as a whis-
pering campaign last Saturday
launched by minor officials at
the Elysee Palace Itself. At
least a half dozen foreign
newsmen were given privately
to understand that the gen.
erals plot was backed by
strongly anti Communist ele-
ments in the United States
Government and military serv-
ices. The leader of the revolt,
Gen. Maurice Challe, was re-
ported to have received assur-
ances that any move to keep
Algeria under permanent
French domination and out of
Communist hands would be in
the interests of the United
States. There also was a strong
implication that a change IN
the NATO policies of Gen. de
Gaulle would be welcomed as
one Of the results Of a sue
cessful coup d'etat.
At first, except in the Com
munist press, these rumors
were treated with contempt. It
is only since the end of acute
danger that they have been
revived in circles which cannot
by any stretch of imagination
be included in the normally
anti-American fringe of French
opinion.
Just how far this idea has
spread was revealed by the lead
editorial in yesterdays LIE
Monde. rated as the most re-
spected and influential news
paper published in France:
1T now seems established
that some American agents
more or less encouraged Maui
rice Challe, whose experience in
NATO should have put him
on guard against the dealings
Of these irresponsible people
and their Spanish and Ger
man colleagues. Kennedy OBJ
viously had nothing to do with
this affair. To make this plain
he considered it necessary to
offer aid to Gen. deGaulle,
well-intentioned certainly but
inopportune."
U. s. Embassy Denies
So far as can be determined
the rumor has lost nothing of
its momentum because of a
denial Of the American EN-
bassy labelling the editorial as
completely absurd and un-
founded" At this point it seems
well on its way to becoming Of
important part of the myth
ology Of the recent revolt-one
that will be difficult If not i'm
possible to change.
The reason, quite simply, is
that many Frenchmen would
like to believe these rumors,
unreasonable and illogical as
they may be. For them 1t Is
at least a partial explanation
- ARflaA-