Shane Mage wrote:
calamities for the Algerian workers and peasants. Who in
Algeria (except a handful of Officers, Bureaucrats, and Capitalists)
is not today much worse off from every point of view than
if Jacques Soustelle's offer of full integration had been
(per impossibile) accepted?
The Washington Post, August 8, 1990, Wednesday, Final
Jacques Soustelle Dies; Served in French Cabinet
PARIS -- Jacques Soustelle, 78, a former cabinet minister who clashed
with Gen. Charles de Gaulle over the Algerian conflict, died on Aug. 7
in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine. The cause of death was not
reported.
A distinguished anthropologist noted for his study of pre-Colombian
culture, Mr. Soustelle was named to the prestigious Academie Francaise
in 1983 for his studies outlined in such books as "Life of the Aztecs"
and "The Maya Civilization."
Jacques Emile Soustelle was born in the southern French town of
Montpellier Feb. 3, 1912, the son of a Protestant railway worker. He
studied letters at the Ecole Normale Superieure. A brilliant student, he
became a world-class expert in anthropology and ethnology, principally
that of Latin and Central America, where he was in 1939 at the outbreak
of World War II.
Strongly opposed to fascism, he was among the first to rally to de
Gaulle's appeal on June 18, 1940, from London to fight the Vichy
government that collaborated with Nazi Germany. Mr. Soustelle became
chief of the Free French force's secret service.
After the liberation of France in 1944, Mr. Soustelle served as minister
of information and later minister of colonies. In 1955, he was appointed
governor-general of Algeria by Premier Pierre Mendes-France.
The appointment of an intellectual with known left-wing sympathies
caused trepidation in Algeria's European settler community, which was
engaged in a bloody struggle with the anti-colonial National Liberation
Front (FLN).
But to their surprise, Mr. Soustelle soon declared independence would be
a disaster both for Algeria and France. He became popular among the
"colons" and was withdrawn by the Socialist government in 1956.
De Gaulle returned to power in 1958 as the Algerian war threatened to
tear France apart. Mr. Soustelle again became minister of information
and later a deputy foreign minister.
The crowning moment of his career came on June 4, 1958, when he stood
with de Gaulle before a delirious crowd of settlers in the French North
African possession as the general told them: "Je vous ai compris." ("I
have understood you")
By the end of 1959, however, de Gaulle had decided to let Algeria go,
and Mr. Soustelle quit the government, saying he could not "make a deal
with cutthroats."
He joined the OAS secret army in 1962. It conducted a campaign of
assassination and sabotage in a bid to keep Algeria French. Mr.
Soustelle was charged on Sept. 22, 1962, with "attempts against the
state." The same year, renegade army officers tried to assassinate de
Gaulle for giving Algeria independence.
He spent six years in exile. In 1968, after a political amnesty, he
returned to France and resumed his academic and political career. He met
with little political success. Increasingly, he devoted himself to his
scholarly interests, becoming president of the Center Universitaire
European.
--
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