Through 1957 and 1958, official American policy gradually began to change under the unofficial pressures upon it. Another American correspondent, Michael Clark of the New York Times (who supported Algérie française), recalls how the “courteous briefing” handed out to itinerant journalists by American diplomats now usually took the line that their function was “to ease the French out as painlessly as possible”.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 762