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"I don't think the coups are over with yet," A. Nicholas Wahl, assistant professor of Government, said last night in the Quincy House Junior Common Room.
Although a military putsch is definitely at, there may well be one last violent attempt at a general revolution by the conservatives both in France and Algeria, he maintained.
Wahl, whose talk was sponsored by the international Relations Council speculation that perhaps the greatest danger is a attempt on General de Gaulle's life. The reaction to the generals' revolt in Algeria showed, more than anything else, that the personal loyalty which the French people feel for de Gaulle is the sole source of French unity.
An army revolt would be impossible to imagine in most fully industrialized countries, Wahl continued. The recent attempt shows that there is still a primitive, "Latin American" strain in French culture. It may also make the Algerian rebels wonder if de Gaulle will be able to impose any treaty he signs upon the Frenchmen in Algeria, Wahl said.
At the same time, Wahl admitted that the speed with which the revolt was put down demonstrates de Gaulle's power.
The French conservatives are not at all like their American counterparts, Wahl asserted. They generally represent the economic interests that are being replaced by the continued industrialization of France, and they look upon the Algerian crisis as their last lever to use to play the economic change they fear.
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