But, if this was his aim, it was equally counter-productive. In disillusion Bourguiba remarked: "I had wanted little Tunisia to become the West's postage stamp on the African continent. Now all that is over." After Bizerta, it would take France a year even to re-establish diplomatic relations with Bourguiba; meanwhile, de Gaulle lost his one ally capable of exerting a moderating influence on the G.P.R.A. and of encouraging it to accept peace terms in any way beneficial to France. It was also Bourguiba who had done more than any other to persuade the F.L.N. to "play it cool" to offers of Eastern bloc aid. At the same time the alienation of Bourguiba now meant the abrupt end to de Gaulle's notions of "internationalising" the Sahara as a means of keeping it out of exclusively Algerian hands.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1443