Word: paratrooper
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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These are the words of the paratroop general who led "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne," of the military diplomat who commanded U.S. troops in Berlin (1949) and Korea (1953), of the scholarly Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1945), of the restless, rebellious Army Chief of Staff under Dwight Eisenhower. They are the words of General Maxwell Davenport Taylor, U.S.A. (ret.), soldier and statesman who, by a remarkable turn in the wheel of fortune and the special needs of John F. Kennedy, last week had the biggest, toughest job of his career: military and intelligence adviser...
...cool darkness before Sunday morning dawn, squads of paratroopers stealthily slipped through the streets of Algiers. One group ringed the ornate Moorish residence of France's delegate general in Algeria, Jean Morin, and unceremoniously took him prisoner in his bed. Also seized was Transport Minister Robert Buron, who happened to be visiting Algiers. Other paratroopers took prisoner the top military man in Algeria. General Fernand Gambiez, and occupied all the city's key buildings-post office, police and government offices. Shortly before 9 a.m., Radio Algiers announced the news to the stunned city: three paratroop regiments had taken...
...been the end of it, for the police files of Algiers are filled with unsolved murders of "liberal" Europeans. But, under De Gaulle, the police no longer look the other way. Detectives carefully checked up on every name listed in Popie's methodical diary. One entry mentioned a paratroop corporal named Claude Peintre. When Peintre was brought in for questioning last week, it was discovered that his fingerprints matched those found in Popie's office after the murder...
...Another paratroop colonel calmly admitted that the police had begged his assistance, but he did nothing. A third, Colonel Henri Dufour, testified he had also told General Challe that he would not fire on the insurrectionists. When French Premier Michel Debre hurried to Algiers, Dufour advised him not to count on the army because "this is a political problem; it needs a political solution...
...Will you accept?' General Challe asked. One man said no. Challe asked me. I said yes." In bewilderment, Coste exclaimed to the military court: "Gentlemen, does a uniformed servant of the state have the right to discuss law and obedience to the law?" The testimony of the paratroop colonels, he said, "reveals an extraordinary state of affairs for an army. It shows that for some soldiers, an order is not an order but a basis for discussion...