Word: french
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...only on the morning of the broadcast. But the public and politicians felt sure that a "liberal" solution was coming-and everything De Gaulle did last week strengthened that belief. In a move clearly intended to head off potential army resistance, rightist General Andre Zeller, chief of staff of French ground forces, was replaced by Gaullist General Andre Demetz. And to the African Premiers, De Gaulle for the first time used the word "self-determination" in connection with Algeria...
...From sources close to De Gaulle came predictions that the new plan would offer Algeria alternatives under which "nothing will be excluded-not even independence." Almost certainly, the general would call for "pacification" as a first step in his plan, if only to keep the touchy and victory-hungry French army behind him. But pacification could fall far short of a fight to the finish; De Gaulle might well decree within the next few months that rebel resistance in Algeria was no longer widespread enough to warrant the title of "civil war," and that pacification had been achieved...
...electoral consultation" with the Algerian people to allow them at least limited self-determination of their future relationship with France. Either through a popular referendum or an elected Assembly, Algerians might be permitted to choose among full integration of Algeria with France, some form of regional autonomy within the French Republic, or home rule as a member of the French Community in Africa. In time-perhaps after five years-Algeria might even be granted the right to opt for full independence...
Fifty years of uneventful French rule were followed by Japanese occupation during World War II and a brief resistance to the French return. During the seven-year Indo-Chinese War between the French and the Communist Viet Minh, however, most Laotian rebels stayed prudently in exile, returning only to take over the government when Laos was granted autonomy...
Under the terms of the 1954 Geneva agreement. France was allowed to main tain 5,000 troops in Laos, was entrusted with the training of the Royal Laotian Army. fact, the French promptly cut their Laotian garrison to fewer than a thousand men, showed so little interest in their training mission that many of the Laotian army's 25,000 men are still incompetent to handle anything heav ier than a submachine...