GREATNESS AT THE ABYSS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100360027-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 1, 1999
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: January 31, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 20 7/26: CIA-RDP75-00149R00010
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E. 251,226
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JCPYRGHT A
Greatness at is abyss
Sympathy is due to President de of -political depravity - the "bar-
Gaulle although many who have felt bouzes" or false i~eards, political_
his stern hand will not be inclined to gangsters. k
grant it. It is of some interest that, in the'
At the pinnacle of his greatness effort to disassociate the Gaullists
and perhaps near the eve of his re- from the deed, certain high French'
'tirement this powerful figure, the quarters advanced the idea that the
.undoubted regenerator of France, is Ben Barka scandal was the work of
.tainted by a scandal that shakes the tIie"'CTA"of thee. United States.
.diplomatic world and reflects the --But-t're-'Web appears to have, been=;
-worst aspects of criminal intrigue. spun much more locally, and at its
The event is the Ben Barka scan- center - because he has controlled
'dal -- the circumstances connected all the strings and glories in doing
,.,with the kidnap and presumed mur- it-is De Gaulle himself.
der in Paris of a Moroccan notable- His admission of accountability, the
'last October. finally unavoidable firings of police,
As our correspondent Edwin Rotli. officials, condemnations of suspected-'
xelates on the opposite page, details, participants in the affair, and whirl-
'slowly coming to light, indicate that wind reorganization of French secu-
-elements of the forces employed on city police bring his great reputation
behalf of General de Gaulle to assure perilously close to collapse.
'his own ascent to power and to con. As Mr. Roth estimates, if the pub-
`solidate his party in control went on lie knew as much about the Ben
..the rampage in a welter of interna- Barka episode before the election in
tional conspiracy and corruption. France as it knows now, Be Gaulle
might have failed re-election.
De Gaulle himself, of course, is no There has not been. such dismay In'.
:participant in the Ben Barka affair. France for years as at the revelation
But his alarmed followers sought to that the Republic; in no small degree,
cover up Gaullist complicity. Those' has been founded on a reliance on
who helped do away with the exiled' thugs and gangsters. It is a shoddy
Moroccan also have done strong-arm demeaning of the enthusiasm so
service for Dc Gaulle and they know' many had in the spiritual energy of
much-too much, probably, for some resurgent France.
of those involved and deemed likely For us, it illustrates again that;
to talk have also recently met ` un- authoritarian government,' no matter.,
timely ends. how superficially benign, well-inten-
All of this is dissolutive of gran- tioned or `'necessary," rests on the.
dour, and in many eyes the unfortu- ; power of the club, the gun and the
nate President of France looks like a knife. It may be open and controlled
patriotic and austere front of recti. as was the case with Fascism or covert
tude behind which operate phantoms and uncontrollable as with De Gaulle.
Approved For Release 2001/07/26 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100360027-6