When the first news reached France, because of army censorship in Algiers, compounded with distraction by their own surfeit of crises at home, ordinary Frenchmen did not at first take in just how deadly was the predicament in Algeria. The country was seized by a bad bout of la grippe; a quarter of the population of Metz was reported stricken. In Paris the spring collections were beginning, amid much speculation about slipping waistlines and vanished sleeves. In New York General Douglas MacArthur was about to celebrate his 80th birthday in his retreat atop the Waldorf Towers, still fuming at his dismissal by Truman at the beginning of the decade.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1106