Lacoste was away on leave in the Dordogne, and to this day there remains some mystery as to whether the coup was in fact a first major instance of the French military acting on its own initiative, in disregard of the civil authorities, expressly with a view to torpedoing the peace negotiations; as to whether Lacoste turned a blind eye; or whether there was some degree of complicity even by the Mollet government, now deeply committed to the Suez adventure. The relevant orders are said to have been destroyed.

QUESTION: The ambiguity about who authorized the coup — Lacoste's army, Lacoste, or the Mollet government — is unresolved because the orders were destroyed. Worth chasing. XREF: Connects to broader history of French civil-military tensions during the Algerian War and the lead-up to the 1958 fall of the Fourth Republic.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 485