Jean Bastien-Thiry - Assassination Attempt

Assassination Attempt

Since 1848, French Algeria had been considered an integral part of France. After having returned to power with the stated intention of maintaining the French Départements of Algeria, de Gaulle, in September 1959, made a sudden reversal of policy and instead began opting for the eventual secession of Algeria. (This helped push Bastien-Thiry, who up until this time had been a Gaullist, into becoming an opponent.) As a consequence of this new policy, two referendums on self-determination were held —the first in 1961; and the second on 8 April 1962 (known as the French Évian Accords referendum). The latter was not in accord with Article 3 of the French constitution, as citizens living in Algeria were barred from any input on the referendum.

Bastien-Thiry, who was involved with the still-mysterious organization, "Vieil État-Major" (which was probably supported by high-ranking officials, politicians and possibly some heads of large companies), tried to make contact with the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS), which was leading the Resistance against De Gaulle's policy and against FLN terrorism. According to Dr Pérez, OAS chief of intelligence and operations section (ORO), Vieil Etat Major messenger Jean Bichon met him in Algiers but his demanding conditions couldn't be accepted for OAS may help him. Anyway Bastien-Thiry never had contact with the OAS organization and he never told his direct chief was Jean Bichon, arrested later.

Bastien-Thiry led the most prominent of several assassination attempts on de Gaulle. In preparation, his group had set up in the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart. On 22 August 1962, De Gaulle's car (Citroën DS) as well as nearby shops were raked with machine gun fire. De Gaulle, his wife and entourage were able to escape without injury. After the attempt, some fourteen bullet holes were found in the president's vehicle; another twenty were found to have struck the nearby Café Trianon; and an additional 187 spent shell casings were found on the pavement. This event was fictionalized in the 1971 book, "The Day of the Jackal". De Gaulle credited the unusual abilities of the DS vehicle with saving his life —even though the shots had punctured two of the tires (armoured) the car was still able to escape at full speed.