The Best Defense

"My center is collapsing, my right retreats, the situation is excellent, I shall attack." That mild-mannered ex-school master, Premier Guy Mollet, pulled out his copybook last week and took a timely lesson from Marshal Foch at the 1918 Battle of the Marne. Deserted by his coalition partner, Mendes-France, under withering bombardment from all sides for his handling of the North African crisis, Socialist Mollet marched out to demand a vote of confidence from the Assembly.

The Right had been all set to shell him for freeing Tunisia and Morocco without winning Arab help in pacifying Algeria. But after Mendes-France pulled out in dissatisfaction over the lack of genuine reforms in Algeria, the big guns of the Right, which favor the tough elements of Mollet's Algerian policy, fell silent. The biggest thunder on the Left came from Stalin Peace Prizewinner Pierre Cot. "A war that France cannot wage and does not want," he cried. "The only thing to do is negotiate." But Mollet's attack made its own breaks. Just in time, the government announced that 290 eastern Algerian rebels had been killed and turbaned General Si Amrouche routed in "the biggest battle of the year." Optimistic for the first time, Algeria's Minister Resident Robert Lacoste told cheering deputies that 400,000 French troops will be in the field this month, and he had "good reason to believe that in several months we will see results and entire populations rallying to our side."

Winding up the cannonade, Mollet attacked Communists who "organize demonstrations in railway stations when reservists are leaving" and "call for a ceasefire in Algeria." Said Mollet: "I, too, am a partisan of a ceasefire, but these people make the demand only on France." Though the vote was not due until this week, Mollet appeared likely to win--for as Mollet himself quipped "everybody wants my blood but nobody wants my job."

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