As the actual negotiations at Evian got under way, a fundamental difference of approach was at once discernible between the opposing teams, with Joxe endeavouring to get down to specific details — such as the length of the “transitory phase” from French administration to Algerian sovereignty, and the “guarantees” to be provided for the Europeans — and Krim seeking refuge behind declarations of general principles. On the vital issue of “guarantees” for the pieds noirs, Tricot found it “intolerable” that Krim would not, or could not, “speak with precision of the future”. Immediately, said Tricot, there gaped “an abyss between the global guarantees of which we were thinking and the various protestations of goodwill which our representatives had heard”.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1428