Already in mid-September de Gaulle was writing to Eisenhower and Macmillan, informing them that N.A.T.O. "was no longer adapted to the needs of our defence…the alliance should henceforth be placed under a triple rather than a dual direction, failing which France would take no further part". In equally brutal language he was soon torpedoing Macmillan's hopes for a Free Trade Area in Europe; while to his intimates he was revealing his ambitions to create a truly modern army at the earliest opportunity: "As soon as the Algerian war is ended, I shall form five atomic divisions…."

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 954