The Day of the Jackal

On 11 March, 1963, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, the leader of a gang of Secret Army Organization assassins who plotted to kill French leader Charles de Gaulle, is executed by firing squad. The Secret Army Organization is comprised of French nationalists who have sworn enmity against de Gaulle, who they feel has betrayed France by granting independence to the former French colony of Algeria. Bastien-Thiry led a failed operation on 22 August, 1962. He and a group of gunmen attempted to ambush de Gaulle’s motorcade but were undone by the failing light, as Bastien-Thiry mistook the timing of dusk. De Gaulle and his wife escaped unhurt while the secret services launches “the biggest police operation in French history” (11).

Service Five is a subgroup of the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage, also known as SDECE. While other subgroups are dedicated to regions or areas of the economy, Service Five is dedicated to “Action” (13). Staffed mainly by tough, ruthless Corsicans, the Action Service mounted a manhunt for Bastien-Thiry and his associates. As the Secret Army Organization launched further plots against de Gaulle, a secret “undercover war” (14) was waged against them by the Action Service. At the same time, the OAS launched a propaganda operation led by Colonel Antoine Argoud, a highly respected member of the French military who was decorated in World War II and the battle against Algerian independence.