Word: bourguibaism
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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...
Amazingly, the Tunisians made no individual reprisals against the 180,000 French citizens scattered throughout the country. In all, President Bourguiba ordered the arrest of only 300 Frenchmen, some of whom were released the next...
...tragedy has affected Tunisians. "For years we have lived with France and now they do this," said a dock worker at Bizerte. "One never knows them well enough, does one?" Dozens of times during the week. Tunisians came up to me to say, "C'est fini!" From President Bourguiba down to the lowliest peasant, there is the realization that, come what may and even with the passage of time, Tunisians will never trust France again...
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...