Bastien-Thiry, Jean-Marie

Born in Luneville (Meurt-et-Moselle) in a Catholic hereditary officer family. He was the eldest of seven children. His father, a lieutenant colonel of artillery, had known de Gaulle since the 1930s, was an ardent Gaullist and a member of the RPF Gaullist party . His grandfather was the captain of the cavalry. Bastien-Tiri studied at Nancy, then at the private Lyceum of Saint Genevieve in Versailles, entered the Polytechnic Institute in 1947, then received a diploma from the SUPAERO Higher National School of Space and Aeronautics (in Toulouse) and joined the French Air Force, where he worked on air-to-air missiles. In 1957 he was promoted to the rank of chief aviation weapons engineer. He was married to Genevieve Lamiran, daughter of Georges Lamiran (1899-1994), who was from September 1939 to March 1943. General Minister for Youth Affairs of Vichy France , but his family supported the " Fighting France ." They had three daughters: Ilen (born 1955), Odile (born in 1957) and Agnes (born in 1960).

De Gaulle returned to power with the intention of supporting the French departments in Algeria (established in 1848), as "an integral part of France." However, in September 1959 he dramatically changed politics and began to seek the secession of Algeria. Bastien-Tiree, a former Gaullist until 1959, became an opponent of the regime. Most military officers and even several close de Gaulle associates expressed their disagreement with the president’s policy on Algeria. Two referendums on self-determination were held: the first in 1961 and the second on April 8, 1962. The latter became known as the French referendum on the Evian Agreements and came into conflict with Article 3 of the French Constitution , as citizens living in Algeria were excluded from this referendum.

A Gaullist until 1959, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry became an opponent of de Gaulle because of his Algerian policy, after de Gaulle began a policy of curtailing the colonial war and started secret negotiations with the TNF ^[2] . Bastien-Thiry regarded de Gaulle as a dictator, “whose views on historical evolution are very close to Marxism”, believing in the “inevitable triumph of communism”, whose actions led to the tradition of Algeria and then all of Africa into the arms of communism. He regarded the loss of Algeria as "more severe than the loss of Alsace - Lorraine ." He also stated that "General de Gaulle's Algerian policy is a crime against humanity, it is nothing but dishonor and shame." In his biography on the general, Jean Lacouture also summed up: “From now on, [Bastien-Tiri], the man who betrayed part of the national territory to“ Arab communism, is Antichrist. ”

Bastien-Tiree was involved in the organization “ fr. Vieil État-Major ”, still under a veil of secrecy. She may have been supported by senior officers, politicians and heads of large companies, collaborated with the SLA , which has already carried out killings and bombings to prevent Algeria from gaining independence. Bastien-Tiree, however, was not a member of the SLA.

After organizing an assassination attempt in Pont-sur-Seine on September 8, 1961, General de Gaulle's life, he resorted to numerous further assassination attempts, all of them were upset by the security services. He expected to find in the speeches of St. Thomas Aquinas justification of the causes of regicide, this helped to reconcile his Catholic beliefs with the goals of his deadly project.

He led the most famous attempt at the attempt on de Gaulle. His group set up an ambush in the Paris suburb of Petit Clamart, firing machine-gun fire at de Gaulle's car and nearby shops. Citroen DS de Gaulle was not armored, but the general, his wife and his entourage were not injured and left the scene of the assassination attempt. In the president’s car, 14 bullet holes were found, twenty bullets hit the Trianon cafe, 187 bullets were found on the pavement. This event was described in the novel by Frederick Forsyth “Jackal Day” (1971). De Gaulle appreciated the extraordinary capabilities of the Citroen DS, thanks to which his life was saved. Despite the fact that the bullets pierced two tires, his car was able to escape from the killers at full speed.

Bastien-Thiry was arrested on September 17, 1962 after returning from a scientific mission to Great Britain. The military tribunal, chaired by General Roger Garde, lasted from January 28 to March 4, 1963 at the Chateau de Vincennes. He was defended by a team of lawyers: Jacques Isorney, Richard Dupuy, Bernard Le Corolllet and Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancourt , who later became the far-right candidate in the presidential election in 1965. According to defense tactics, Bastien-Thiry sought de Gaulle's trial.

Again raising the question of the foundations of the Fifth Republic, qualified as a “de facto state”, along with Algerian policies pursued by a general qualified as “genocide” of the European population and “tyrannical” power of the head of state. This was a complete excuse for a person who could not physically kill anyone. Bastien-Tiree claimed to be destroyed morally. Bastien-Tiri got to the point of likening himself to Colonel Stauffenberg, who on July 20, 1944, tried to kill Hitler.

Original text (Fr.)

remettant en question à la fois les fondements de la Ve République - qualifiée d 'État de fait "-, l'ensemble de la politique algérienne du général - qualifié de" génocide "de la population européenne - et le pouvoir" tyrannique "du chef de l'État. C'était la légitimité tout entière de l'homme qu'il n'avait pu tuer physiquement que Bastien-Thiry prétendait anéantir moralement, allant même jusqu'à s'assimiler, lui, au colonel von Stauffenberg qui, le 20 juillet avait tenté de supprimer Hitler.

He also stated during his process:

These officers [Germans] had to be painfully defeated by the Nazi genocide against Jews, just as we were by the Gaullist genocide of French Muslims. They should have been outraged to the core by the horror of the Nazi concentration camps, as we were terrified of the detention camps that now exist in Algeria with the actual complicity of the authorities.

Original text (Fr.)

Ces officiers [allemands] ont dû aussi être douloureusement frappés par le génocide hitlérien des Juifs, comme nous le sommes par le génocide gaulliste des Français musulmans: ils ont dû être soulevés au plus profond de campes de plus de campes concentration nazis, comme nous l'avons été par l'horreur des camps de détention qui existent aujourd'hui en Algérie avec la complicité du pouvoir de fait.

Meanwhile, such a line of defense proved to be relatively inconsistent, since the accused claimed before the tribunal that he did not want to kill de Gaulle, but tried to capture him, let him be tried, while according to all other previous confessions, the ultimate goal of the operation was death heads of state.

Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, referring to the fact that the murder of a tyrant was justified by St. Thomas Aquinas, and that the confessor had forgiven his sins in advance, claiming that as a result of the shooting, which was carried out in order in a car that served as a target for 11 shooters, 180 bullets were fired and it was shot through by 14 bullets on August 22, 1962 between 20:09 and 20:10 in Petit Klamar, did not pursue any other purpose, except to make sure that there is a person of the head of state.

Original text (Fr.)

Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, tout en alléguant que le tyrannicide était justifié par saint Thomas d'Aquin et qu'un confesseur l'en avait par avance absous, soutenait que le mitraillage en règle d'un véhicule criblé de 14 projectiles et qui avait servi de cible à 180 balles tirées sur lui par onze tueurs le 22 août 1962 entre 20 h 09 et 20 h 10 au Petit-Clamart, n'avait pour objectif que de s'assurer de la personne du chef de l'État.

Declaring that de Gaulle’s death was justified in connection with the TNF’s genocide of the European population ( massacre in Oran , 1962) and tens of thousands of pro-French Muslims , Bastien-Tiree also claimed that he only wanted to capture the president, while other conspirators they wanted to kill de Gaulle by their common consent. This attracted the sympathy of the judges. The mental state of Bastien-Tiri was recognized by psychiatrists as normal, despite his clinical depression. He was convicted and sentenced to death as a participant in this assassination, as well as other arrows of the team. He was stripped of his title of Knight of the Legion of Honor and imprisoned on death row at the de Fresne prison.

General de Gaulle, as president of France, had the power to pardon the convict. He forgave the two convicted conspirators who shot at his car, but refused to pardon Bastien-Tiri, despite the request of Bastien-Tiri's father to save his son's life. Before the court, the president expressed his intention to grant clemency to Bastien-Tiri, stating that "the idiot must be given twenty years and within five years I will release him." However, according to the recollections of de Gaulle's son-in-law Alain de Boissot, after the conspirators recognized, the president formulated four arguments for refusing to commute the sentence:

• Bastien-Tiree ordered his henchmen to open fire on the car, where an innocent man, a woman (Madame Yvonne de Gaulle), was about which Bastien-Tiree knew.
• The civilian family (namely the Filon family, including three children), who was driving a car across the road from the presidential motorcade and ended up on the line of fire, was in danger.
• He involved foreigners (three Hungarians) in the plot and paid them for participating in the murder of the head of state.
• The most serious thing, according to de Gaulle, was that while the other conspirators shot at the car and thereby exposed themselves to a certain danger, Bastien-Tiree was not directly exposed to the risk, he only watched the events from a distance, giving a signal to the shooters. "The least that can be said about him is that he was not at the center of the action."

A medical examination, however, could have contributed to his pardon. Bastien-Tiri “spent many months in the house of health as a result of“ mental disorder ”,“ excessive nervousness ”,“ lack of balance due to great fatigue ”. General de Gaulle asked for confirmation from Maitre Dupuy, one of Bastien-Tiri's lawyers, but the request for pardon was not granted. In addition, a psychiatric examination conducted shortly after his arrest concluded that he was normal, concluding: “There is no tendency to depression, even related to this situation. [...] From the point of view of the psyche, he is certainly neither obsessed nor exalted. "

The execution was carried out a week after the trial, which was unusual. In order to transport the convict from his cell to the place of execution, a plan was put in place, the scale of secrecy of which has no precedent in French legal history . 2000 police officers were stationed along the highway, 35 vehicles were used. The government feared that there was a plan to escape Bastien-Tiri, and wanted to prevent it.

According to the rules, sentenced to death by a military court, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry was shot by a platoon of soldiers in Fort d'Ivry on March 11, 1963 at 6:39. He refused the offer to blindfold him and clasped the beads in his hand.

This sentence was the last death sentence imposed by a military court, and his execution was the last execution carried out in France. His body was buried in the Paris cemetery de Tie. Then his remains were reburied at the Burg la Rhine cemetery on Holy Saturday (April 13, 1963), following his execution, his grave was wrapped in a national tricolor.

De Gaulle said the following about Bastien-Thiry: “France needs martyrs ... But they must be carefully chosen. I could give them one of those idiot generals playing ball in Tula prison. I gave them Bastien-Tiri. They are smart enough to make a martyr out of him. He deserves it. ”

We were sincere participants in the struggle for French Algeria, [...] but we understand that there were other solutions for the future of Algerians, solutions that could protect the path of sincerity and honor, [...] unconditional obedience [...] respecting life, the freedom and welfare of millions of native French and French Muslims living on this earth.

Original text (Fr.)

I [...] nous étions sincèrement partisans de l'Algérie française, [...] mais nous concevions qu'il y eût d'autres solutions pour l'avenir algérien, solutions pouvant être défendues de façon honnête et sincère; l'impératif absolu [...] étant [...] de faire respecter la vie, la liberté et les biens des millions de Français de souche et de Français musulmans vivant sur cette terre.

There is no sense of History, there is no wind of History because the one who makes the History, according to our Western and Christian concept, which is verified by all historical facts, is the will of the people, their aspirations, good or bad.

Original text (Fr.)

Il n'y a pas de sens de l'Histoire, il n'y a pas de vent de l'Histoire car ce qui fait l'Histoire, selon notre conception occidentale et chrétienne qui est vérifiée par tous les faits historiques, c ' est la volonté des hommes, c'est l'intelligence des hommes, ce sont leurs passions, bonnes ou mauvaises.

• A documentary drama was shot about him: “ Fr. Ils voulaient tuer De Gaulle . " (“They Wanted to Kill de Gaulle”), directed by Jean-Teddy Philippe; Jean-Pierre Michelle in the role of Bastien-Tiree, Pierre Arnaud-Juin in the role of Alain de Bougren de La Tokne , Fred Bianconi in the role of Arman Belvisi.
• At the beginning of The Jackal Day , the English writer Frederick Forsythe ( Chacal, The Day of the Jackal , 1973) mentions an attempted assassination attempt and the shooting of Bastien-Tiri. According to Forsyth, Bastien-Tiri, having waved the newspaper, had to give a signal to the shooters, and after the shelling they had to hide in the coming twilight. However, he took advantage of last year’s 1961 calendar, which indicated that twilight would come at 20:25. In 1962, twilight came at 20:10, so the arrows did not notice either a signal or a motorcade approaching without beacons, and the thorough calculations of Bastien-Tiri disappeared in vain.

  Commander of the Legion of Honor (deprived in 1962).

• Agnès Bastien-Thiry, Mon père, le dernier des fusillés , éd. Michalon, Paris, 2005 ISBN 2-84186-266-6 .
• Gabriel Bastien-Thiry, Plaidoyer pour un frère fusillé , éd. La Table ronde, Paris, 1966.
• Jean-Pax Méfret, Bastien-Thiry: jusqu'au bout de l'Algérie française , éd. Pygmalion, Paris, 2003 ISBN 2-85704-815-7 .
• Lajos Marton, Il faut tuer de Gaulle , Éditions du Rocher, Monaco, 2002 ISBN 2-26804-366-5 .
• François Caviglioli et Jean-Marie Pontaut , La Grande Cible , Mercure de France, Paris, 1972.

• Site of Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry