French Leaders

While a multitude of French people were directly involved in the war there were two man whose stances and actions were by far the most profound.

Guy Mollet
Dec. 31, 1905-Oct. 3, 1975

Guy Mollet was the French Premier who failed to deal with the Algerian Revolution. He was a Socialist who resisted any notion of an alliance with the French Communist Party. Part of this stemmed from the FCP's defense of the Algerians, the FCP felt a sympathy towards the Algerians and supported the revolution in all but name.

As Premier in 1956 he failed in peace talks with the Algerians and was the one who sent more French Conscripts to Algiers. When the peace talks fell through and Mollet felt that it was necessary to enter talks with Britain. Due to a belief that the Egyptians had supplied the Algerians, Mollet agreed to join Britain in future operations in the Suez Canal.

Mollet was originally in the same party as the former President of France, Pierre Mendes-France, however Pierre split during the 1958 electio because he opposed De Gaulle's ascension to power. Pierre was also the man who had to first respond to Algerian Revolution.

Charles De Gaulle
November 22, 1890-November 9, 1970



De Gaulle was the French President who took power during 1956 and ended the course of the war. His policies also failed to deal with the Algerian Revolution. De Gaulle was originally a general during WWII but when the war ended De Gaulle began his political career during the mid 40s. However De Gaulle abruptly left politics in 1946 out a disgust for parties.

When the Fourth Republic began De Gaulle was very vocal in its appeal, believing it to be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Third. However during the Algerian War the people rallied behind putting De Gaulle in power believing him to be capable of ending the war.

When De Gaulle took power he originally hoped to insure a French Victory something the people backing him desired. However he quickly realizing that such a victory was not possibly and hence his focus became to just end the war as soon as possible. Hence it wasn't long before he signed a peace treaty with the FLN.

After the war, De Gaulle would continue to hold power for a while before eventually resigning as the Fourth Republic collapsed and the Fifth Republic began.