LETTER FROM ALGIERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100440021-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 5, 1999
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: July 17, 1965
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

7 7 of c until all
FOIAb3b.
Sanitize'd'!- A r
- 17 JULY 1965
CPYRGHT L,rv-. !,: J G l' (1.C.Jj~1
or Santo Domingo, has s correspondents as well
undergone more tur- (five' hundred), were
capital, even Saigon dred), and all the
T is doubtful whcth- foreign representatives.
cr any national (there were eight hun-
moil during the last thoroughly confused.
two weeks than this j] pDp," Then, on June 25th,
one. The military coup rs o part of the fancy brand-
that overthrew Presi- :;,~ new conference' hall,
dent Ahmed Ben Bella called Le Club des Pins,
on June 19th, and also was blown up, appar-
Afro-Asian Confer- r f~ GG Ben Bclla, and the next
ence, which was sched- day. the embarrassed
uled to take place here aC`~' ' ' ' ? . ? Algerians announced
between June 24th and that the meeting was
C
definitely delayed the development of': ,other as violently as they once did wild week, most of Algiers was playing
an economically independent Algeria.., against their European overlords. Also, out its own mystery drama, which
and also indefinitely set back the cause the spectrum has shifted as the 'princi might have been entitled "Ben. Bella
of so-called Afro-Asian solidarity- ;?'plcs of . economic regionalism and bi- ? Vanishes." After the deposed President
events (or non-events) whose reper-;. lateralism have been 'developed, and in. was whisked from his home in the'
??cussions could affect the. relations, of. this context the color of skin on occa-? middle of the ' night, there arose the
the nonaligned African and Asian na-.H sion seems to have become less impor-` questions of just what his fate would be
1, 7tions with Peking, Moscow, and Wash, tant than the color of money. Some- and what course the Algerian "socialist
ington for a long time. The conference,what ironically, Algeria, despite its', revolution" would now take. These
which was to have been. the first such previous shrill anti-imperialist protesta- matters are not likely to be decided
gathering since the initial one, in Ban- tions, was, at the time of the coup right away; in fact, the consensus is
dung, Indonesia, in the spring of 1955; about to conclude a monumental four-':'that it may be several months, at least,
has been rescheduled to begin here on 'hundred-million-dollar. cooperative in-'. before the revolutionary path is re
October 28th, but a considerable num- ". dustrial-development agreement with'.' charted. Meanwhile, as the city writhes
,:,bcr of disgruntled delegates, having-'Franc'e-an arrangement that in con-,'.in a summer sirocco, and the hotels,?
come thousands of miles for'. what ';`ventional left-.wing.circles could surely, ' restaurants, and shops curse their luck
turned out to be a fiasco, 'arc not so: have been described as the epitome of,' (especially since a big youth conference
sure they will try again, and those who' ,.neo-colonialism. Algeria, one of many'. set for Algiers late in July has also
' prudently decided to stay away this, African countries that .have achieved.: been postponed), the predominant at-
time, including representatives of most independence since Bandung, belongs ' mosphere is one of, anticlimax and
of the politically. moderate ' French-, to the large company of "under- uncertainty.
I speaking African nations and of the : developed" nations that are now dis Some people here predict that the'!
r" African ' and Asian members of the covering something the Western states coup, led by the austere and taciturn
British Commonwealth, are now highly.' learned painfully during the centuries 'Colonel Houari Boumedienne, who, as
reluctant to come at all. Beyond the' of their own development: that.while Vice-President. and Defense Minister,
question of whether there should have the equality of nations is a pleasant con- ?s was Ben Bella's closest associate, may
been any attempt to hold the conference.`Ccpt; some nations always'. turn ,out to be the first of several upheavals,' ex-
so soon after a violent political upheaval be more equal than others; power and posing Algeria to the kind of chaos'
are the question of future relations be- , ? prestige are variable and often treacher-; that 'has beset South Vietnam in the.
tween the two unwieldy blocs of Asian ous; and man's capacity for divisive:;'last two years-although the Algeri
and African countries, on the one hand, ,,.debate is greater than his capacity for ~?'ans, fortunately for them, are, not en- l
and the question of cooperation within?;:.harmony,'; gaged in a colonial or a
fratricidal
each bloc. What appeared ten years ago war. Others say that while there is.~
to be an international development of ~][ jHAT has been happening in Al-;, bound to be considerable jockeying for
considerable historical significance-the, 1' Y gicrs would make an ideal scenar-' position in the new regime, the Army
bringing together of the old and new . io for the combined talents of Mack will easily maintain full control. The
nations of Asia with' the 'fledgling 'Sennett, David O. Sclznick,' and Al- new ruling body, the twenty-six-man
nations of Africa to take a stand against ' fred Hitchcock. Preparations for the Algerian Revolutionary Council, insists
' .the 'dying colonialism of Western conference were immense and expen??. that, the nation's policies,. both internal
Europe and against "imperialism" in sive, costing the Algerians eighteen mil- .and external, will be no different from','
general-has turned into a vague and lion dollars, and the scenes that pre- , what they were under Ben Bella-that
complicated business that at the moment ceded its collapse were reminiscent of . Algeria will now simply "implement;
is creating more political problems than a Keystone comedy, with delegates and rationalize" its revolution and get
-
it is scttlinz. For one thing, "imperial- dashin pell-melt' all over WIN iL 1) ism" has acqui I maADp ~cg e@aser 6 ZIe't4ft#t st~{~D tf t~lhc rti ;St.,
'a term of oppro rium, and some of the should actually. be opened and playing ? verse, reaction of mmun t:.
new nations now employ.it against each _diplomatic bargaining games with each u