Silence in the Dock

In the ornate and heavily guarded Palais de Justice, ex-General Raoul Salan, 62, was on trial for his life, charged with treason. Wearing a well-cut grey suit and elegant Cardin silk tie, Salan looked more like a prosperous businessman than the head of the terrorist Secret Army Organization. It was hard to imagine, as Le Monde put it, "that such a man wielded such frightening power."

Forty-one defense witnesses were prepared to testify to Salan's moral worth, his sensitive nature, his loyalty as a soldier and a friend. Many were right-wing Deputies and Senators, retired generals or

European sympathizers from Algeria. But there was also left-wing Senator Franc,ois Mitterand, the widow of famed Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny, and two officers still on active service who saluted Salan.

Ugly Familiarity. The prosecution offered only three witnesses, but they were enough to spread the record before the court. During the time that Salan was head of the S.A.O., his gunmen in France and Algeria exploded 7,000 plastic bombs, made 2,000 assassination attempts, caused 415 deaths and wounded 1,145 persons.

The details were familiar and ugly. A French officer blown up in his bed. Gendarmes shot through the skull from be hind. Men, women and children indiscriminately murdered by machine guns fired from speeding autos. A Moslem au thor killed by mistake -- because someone had spelled a name wrong.

General Charles Ailleret, former commander of the French forces in Algeria, was contemptuous of S.A.O. courage.

"Those who carried out this terrorism and fell into our hands turned out to be pro fessional killers paid for their work." He added witheringly that he did not know of "a single case"--including Salan's--where an S.A.O. member "resisted arrest" when the police closed in. Ex-Premier Michel Debre was ordered to appear as a witness, but in two hours of close crossexamination, Salan's lawyers were unable to extract much that was helpful to their client. And Salan's case was damaged when a defense witness spoke feelingly of the "humanity" of the present S.A.O.

chief, ex-Colonel Yves Godard; the prosecutor dryly announced that he and the entire court had received letters signed by Godard threatening them with death if Salan was found guilty.

Betrayed Dupe. In his defense, Salan delivered a 45-minute statement in which he once again traced his military record ("I made the name of France glow at the ends of the earth"). As he saw it, his career in the French army was beset by "treason" and "betrayal" back home; he would have won gloriously in Indo-China and Algeria. He admitted being the leader of the S.A.O. and declared: "My responsibility is entire. I accept it." The S.A.O.

had used terror, he insisted, only to retaliate against violence started by Algeria's Moslems themselves.

What most clearly emerged from Salan's long, often halting speech, was his consuming hatred of Charles de Gaulle.

Obviously Salan believes that he more than anyone else was responsible for bringing De Gaulle back to power in 1958.

But he had been "duped" by De Gaulle, who, together with the Algerian Moslems, was now demanding his death. He concluded by stating that "from now on, I shall remain silent." He refused to answer questions from prosecutor or court. After hearing the roll call of S.A.O. bombings and murders, Court President Charles Bornet said: "Before so many detailed and serious accusations, explanation is difficult. Silence may after all be the best defense." Raoul Salan merely pursed his lips and let his pale blue, expressionless eyes wander incuriously about the courtroom.

Anticipating the court's verdict this week, Franchise Giroud wrote in L'Express: "He is really absent from this trial, which is theoretically his own, because he is dead, and because he knows it."

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