Word: bourguibaism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba, the intransigent stand of the French can spell political extinction. At the funeral of Tunisians killed in the fighting, he solemnly pledged, over the very bodies of the dead, that he would get the French out of Bizerte. In two hour-long talks with Hammarskjold, Bourguiba explained that he had to make good his promise or go under...
Momentary Shock. In the wake of the savage French retaliation, Bourguiba was momentarily shocked into silence. Then he rallied, charged that the French refusal to hand over Bizerte was "dictated by a persistence of colonial mentality and by De Gaulle's own obsession with grandeur." He ordered the French oil pipeline terminus at La Skhira seized, and announced that Tunisia would fight on, "even if the whole world turns against us." Volunteers from "friendly countries" were welcome, said Bourguiba, including those offered by Egypt's Nasser, his old archenemy. His deputy, Bahi Ladgham, grimly summoned U.S. Ambassador Walter...
...sympathies of the U.S.. torn between big ally France and small friend Bourguiba (U.S. aid comprises 60% of the Tunisian government's budget), was as divided as its arms-which both sides are using against each other. Disregarding U.S. pleas that the dispute should be settled between themselves, Bourguiba demanded an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, where Tunisia accused France of "premeditated aggression." France's U.N. Ambassador Armand Bérard retorted that the Tunisian events were "tragic and regrettable," but that "a minor pretext was used by the government of Tunisia-some minor work...
Question of Ambition. Why had Bourguiba chosen this moment for his gambit? One guess was that he was trying to impress Algeria's rebel F.L.N.. which last week resumed talks with the French at the Chateau de Lugrin, near Evian. In the five weeks since France broke off the talks, the F.L.N. has increased its prestige enormously and won new popularity among Algerian Moslems. Bourguiba, ambitious to lead a united Mahgreb of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, presumably felt the need to demonstrate to the F.L.N. and to the Arab world generally that he is no "imperialist lackey...
...Bizerte incident had badly scarred all concerned. De Gaulle had enraged his best friend in the Arab world and damaged France's standing throughout Africa. Bourguiba's standing with the West was founded on his hard-held contention that cooperation got more than bristling hostility. With his truculence last week, Bourguiba scuttled Bourguibaism. If, as a result, he managed to lever the French out of Bizerte, every rising nationalist would be encouraged to believe that defiance achieved more than the moderation Bourguiba once stood for. Either way. the West would never look at him with the same confidence...