In the run-up to the referendum, de Gaulle with apparently inexhaustible energy stumped the French Commonwealth expounding the merits of his constitution. The alternatives were baldly stated; either continued association, with all the weighty material benefits that this would bring; or total severance. “Make no mistake,” de Gaulle told the principal doubter, Sékou Touré of Guinée, “the French Republic you are dealing with is no longer the one you knew, which preferred expediency to decision…. She lived for a long time without Guinée. She will live for an equally long time if she is severed from her.” Challenging words. For Algeria, however, the question posed was different; it was not yet one of self-determination (that would come later), but essentially one of carte blanche confidence in de Gaulle and his policy—whatever that might prove to be.

DEFINE: Clarifies the referendum's binary structure for French Commonwealth territories in 1958.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 933