Algiers putsch of 1961 The Algiers putsch ( or ) , also known as the Generals ' putsch ( " Putsch des Généraux " ) , was a failed coup d ' état to overthrow French President Charles de Gaulle ( 70 ) and establish an anti - communist military junta . Organised in French Algeria by retired French army generals Maurice Challe ( 55 , former commander - in - chief in French Algeria ) , Edmond Jouhaud ( 56 , former Inspector General of the French Air Force ) , André Zeller ( 63 , former Chief of staff of the French Ground Army ) and Raoul Salan ( 61 , former commander - in - chief in French Algeria ) , it took place from the afternoon of 21 April to 26 April 1961 in the midst of the Algerian War ( 1954 – 1962 ) . The organisers of the putsch were opposed to the secret negotiations that French Prime Minister Michel Debré ' s government had started with the anti - colonialist National Liberation Front ( FLN ) . General Raoul Salan argued that he joined the coup without concerning himself with its technical planning ; however , it has always been considered a four - man coup d ' état , or as de Gaulle famously put it , " un quarteron de généraux en retraite " ( a quartet of retired generals ) . The coup was to come in two phases : an assertion of control in French Algeria ' s major cities Algiers , Oran and Constantine , followed by the seizure of Paris . The metropolitan operation would be led by Colonel Antoine Argoud , with French paratroopers descending on strategic airfields . The commanders in Oran and Constantine , however , refused to follow Challe ' s demand that they join the coup . At the same time , information about the metropolitan phase came to Prime Minister Debré ' s attention through the intelligence service . On 22 April , all flights and landings were forbidden in Parisian airfields , and an order was given to the army to resist the coup " by all means " . The following day , President Charles de Gaulle made a famous speech on television , dressed with his 1940s - vintage general ' s uniform ( he was 71 and long retired from the army ) ordering the French people and army to help him . Context . The majority of the French people had voted in favour of negotiations for French Algeria ' s self determination during the disputed referendum of 8 January 1961 organised in metropolitan France . The wording of the referendum was " Do you approve the Bill submitted to the French people by the President of the Republic concerning the self - determination of the Algerian population and the organisation of the public power in Algeria prior to self - determination " . French citizens living abroad or serving abroad in the military were allowed to vote , as were all adult Algerians , both Muslim and European , in a single electoral college . Speaking for the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic ( the political arm of the FLN ) , Ferhat Abbas called for a boycott of the referendum , as did sixteen retired French generals and factions amongst the " pied noir " ( French settler ) community opposed to independence . In total four out of ten individuals in France and Algeria entitled to vote abstained . Following the outcome of the referendum , Michel Debré ' s government started secret negotiations with the GPRA . On 25 January 1961 , Colonel Antoine Argoud visited with Premier Debré and threatened him with a coup directed by a " colonels ' junta " ; the French Army was in no way disposed to let the French Algerian département s created in 1848 after the 1830 conquest become independent . Chronology . On 22 April 1961 , retired generals Maurice Challe , André Zeller and Raoul Salan , helped by colonels Antoine Argoud , Jean Gardes , and the civilians Joseph Ortiz and Jean - Jacques Susini ( who would form the OAS terrorist group ) , took control of Algiers . General Challe criticised what he saw as the government ' s treason and lies toward French Algeria colonists and loyalist Muslims who trusted it , and stated that During the night , the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment ( 1e REP ) , composed of a thousand men , and headed by Hélie de Saint Marc took control of all of Algiers ' strategic points in three hours . The units directly involved in the putsch were the 1st and 2nd REP and the 14th and 18th Regiments of " Chasseurs Parachutistes " . Together they comprised the elite units of the airborne divisions of the French Army . Initially there were pledges of support from other regiments ( the 27th Dragoons , the 94th Infantry , the 7th Algerian Tirailleurs and several Marine Infantry units ) but these seem to have reflected the views of senior officers only and there was no active participation . The head of the Parisian police , Maurice Papon , and the director of the " Sûreté nationale " , formed a crisis cell in a room of the Comédie - Française , where Charles de Gaulle was attending a presentation of Racine ' s " Britannicus " . The president was informed during the " entracte " of the coup by Jacques Foccart , his general secretary of African and Malagasy Affairs and closest collaborator , in charge of covert operations . Algiers ' population was awakened on 22 April at 7 am to a message read on the radio : " The army has seized control of Algeria and of the Sahara " . The three rebel generals , Challe , Jouhaud and Zeller , had the government ' s general delegate , Jean Morin , arrested , as well as the National Minister of Public Transport , Robert Buron , who was visiting , and several civil and military authorities . Several regiments put themselves under the command of the insurrectionary generals . General Jacques Faure , six other officers and several civilians were simultaneously arrested in Paris . At 5 pm , during the ministers ' council , Charles de Gaulle declared : " Gentlemen , what is serious about this affair , is that it isn ' t serious " . He then proclaimed a state of emergency in Algeria , while left wing parties , communist trade union CGT and the socialist supporter NGO " Ligue des droits de l ' homme " ( LDH , Human Rights League ) called to demonstrate against the military ' s coup d ' état . The following day , on Sunday 23 April , General Salan arrived from Spain and refused to arm civilian activists . At 8 pm , President de Gaulle appeared in his military uniform on television , calling on French military personnel and civilians , in metropolitan France or in Algeria , to oppose the putsch : Due to the popularity of a recent invention , transistor radio , de Gaulle ' s call was heard by the conscript soldiers , who refused " en masse " to follow the professional soldiers ' call for insurgency . The putsch met with widespread opposition , largely in the form of civil resistance , including a one - hour general strike called by the trade unions the day after de Gaulle ' s broadcast . On Tuesday April 25 the French authorities in Paris ordered the explosion of the atomic bomb " Gerboise Verte " ( lit . " green jerboa " ) in the Sahara as part of a scheduled testing program . The test does not appear to have been affected by the putsch . Gerboise Verte exploded at 6 : 05 AM . The few military units which had followed the generals progressively surrendered . General Challe also gave himself up to the authorities on 26 April , and was immediately transferred to the metropolitan France . The putsch had been successfully opposed , but the article 16 on full and extraordinary powers given to de Gaulle was maintained for five months . " The Battle of the Transistors " — as it was called by the press — was quickly and definitely won by de Gaulle . Casualties . The only known fatality was French Army Sergeant Pierre Brillant , who was killed by the putschists while defending the radio transmitter at Ouled Fayet , Algiers . Brillant was aiming at 1st REP 3rd Company Captain Estoup when he was shot by a legionnaire . Trials and amnesty . A military court condemned Challe and André Zeller to fifteen years of prison . However , they were granted an amnesty and had their military positions restored five years later . Raoul Salan and Jouhaud escaped . Salan was condemned " in absentia " to the death penalty ( later commuted to life sentence ) as was Jouhaud . Salan and others later founded the OAS , a dissident paramilitary organization which attempted to stop the on - going process of the April 1962 Independence Evian Agreements for the Algerian territories of France . A July 1968 act granted amnesty ; the November 24 , 1982 law reintegrated the surviving generals into the army . Raoul Salan , Edmond Jouhaud , and six other generals benefitted from this law . Controversy around CIA and BND allegations . There had been allegations in France , reported first in communist papers and then even in " Le Monde " , that individuals within the CIA supported the coup . However , it was later discovered that this accusation was based off forged documents planted by the KGB in various newspapers . British historian Alistair Horne concurs that the allegation of CIA support for the putsch was " a canard launched by the Communist Press . " Only two days before the Algiers putsch , the CIA had staged a failed coup in Cuba against its leader Fidel Castro , known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion . Regardless , the CIA did not support Challe ' s coup attempt and U . S . President John F . Kennedy contacted de Gaulle assuring him of his support , including military assistance if needed . President de Gaulle rejected Kennedy ' s support . French journalist has also claimed that the French generals also had the support of the " Bundesnachrichtendienst " ( West German Federal Intelligence Service ) leader Reinhard Gehlen . General Challe always claimed he had never been in contact with foreign countries in this affair .