Word: chadli
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...runway apron were half a dozen Transall military freighters and a C-135F aerial refueling plane, together with five fighter aircraft from Zaire. "Operation Manta," as the government of President Francis Mitterrand had code-named France's challenge to Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi's ambitions in Chad, was beginning to acquire some sting...
With his aircraft and some 3,000 troops in place in Chad and in the neighboring Central African Republic, Mitterrand was able to launch a two-pronged diplomatic offensive. He dispatched key aides to a number of capitals to see if Gaddafi would consider a negotiated solution. Equally important, he took the initiative to silence his critics at home. In his first formal statement on France's involvement in Chad, he told the newspaper Le Monde that French troops were in Chad only as "instructors" who would provide "logistical support" and exercise a "dissuasive role." Mitterrand added that...
...bold venture for either side to make a military move. The Libyans are known to have ground-to-air missiles at Faya-Largeau. The French have conventional antiaircraft missiles, while Chadian troops in the forward positions have been issued some of the 30 Redeye missiles supplied to Chad by the Reagan Administration as part of a $25 million emergency-aid package...
...overthrowHabré and pave the way for a new "government of national reconciliation," presumably meaning one that would be more mindful of Libyan wishes. One possible solution might be international recognition of Libyan control over the Aozou Strip, in return for Libya's withdrawal from the rest of Chad. Another would be the effective partition of Chad into a Libyan-dominated north and aHabré-controlled south. But neither of those formulas would be acceptable toHabré or indeed to many other African leaders. Just as the U.S. and France were finally managing to show unity in their response...
Mitterrand's statements reflect the sensitivity of the Chad issue in France. The Socialists have usually opposed military interventions in Africa, and they now find it awkward to have changed their position. French rightists also find themselves in a paradoxical position, reluctant to condemn an intervention that is in line with their own past policies. The three main opposition leaders, former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former Premier Raymond Barre and Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, have all kept silent on the subject. Yvon Blot, spokesman for the neo-Gaullist party, speculated that Mitterrand's "bizarre...