Word: gaddafi
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...next to the jets on the 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...
Nonetheless, it was doubtful that Gaddafi, who had committed as many as 3,500 troops to the attempt to replace Habre with ex-President Goukouni Oueddei, would back off completely in the face of the French military buildup. Aware of the French reluctance to launch an assault, Gaddafi seemed to be hoping that he could secure through negotiations at least part of what he had sought to achieve through force of arms, namely the annexation of a chunk of northern Chad...
With the arrival of French airpower in N'Djamena, the U.S. announced that it was withdrawing the two AW ACS surveillance planes that it had sent to the area a month ago in the hope that Mitterrand would intervene directly. The Administration feared that if Chad fell to Gaddafi, the Libyan leader would be in a position to threaten such U.S. allies as Egypt and, especially, the Sudan. The AW ACS planes never took part in the Chadian war, but they became an unfortunate symbol of the differences between Paris and Washington over how to deal with the crisis...
Some U.S. diplomats are convinced that Mitterrand's strategy is to give himself some negotiating flexibility by decrying the American "pressure" even as he sends in troops to check the Libyan advance. It is altogether possible that the tactic is working. Gaddafi last week gave Mitterrand the benefit of the doubt, saying that France "was drawn into that conflict in spite of itself." This, as well as his repeated assertions that Libya is not directly involved in the conflict, may be Gaddafi's way of preserving a little room to maneuver in future negotiations...