| Jean Bastien-Thiry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 October 1927 Lunéville, France |
| Died | 11 March 1963 (aged 35) Ivry-sur-Seine, France |
| Allegiance | France |
| Service/branch | French Air Force |
| Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
| Battles/wars | World War II Algerian War |
| Other work | Aerospace engineer |
Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry (19 October 1927 – 11 March 1963) was a French military air weaponry engineer (creator of the Nord SS.10/SS.11 missiles) who attempted to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle on 22 August 1962, following Algerian independence. Sentenced to death, he remains the last person to be executed by firing squad in France.
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Bastien-Thiry was born to a family of Catholic military officers in Lunéville, Meurthe-et-Moselle. His father had known de Gaulle in the 1930s and was a member of the Gaullist RPF. He attended the École Polytechnique, followed by the École nationale supérieure de l'Aéronautique before going into the French Air Force where he specialized in the design of air-to-air missiles. In 1957 he was promoted to become principal air military engineer. He was married to Geneviève Lamirand, the daughter of Georges Lamirand (1899–1994), the latter had been Vichy France General Secretary of Youth from September 1940 to March 1943 but the family was Free French.[1] He had three daughters with her.
Since 1848, French Algeria had been considered an integral part of France. After having returned to power with the stated intention of maintaining the French Départements of Algeria, de Gaulle, in September 1959, made a sudden reversal of policy and instead began opting for the eventual secession of Algeria. (This helped push Bastien-Thiry, who up until this time had been a Gaullist, into becoming an opponent.[1]) As a consequence of this new policy, two referendums on self-determination were held —the first in 1961; and the second on 8 April 1962 (known as the French Évian Accords referendum). The latter was not in accord with Article 3 of the French constitution, as citizens living in Algeria were barred from any input on the referendum.
Bastien-Thiry, who was involved with the still-mysterious organization, "Vieil État-Major" (which was probably supported by high-ranking officials, politicians and the heads of large companies), soon made contact with the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS), which was already carrying out assassinations and bombings to try to prevent Algerian independence. Bastien-Thiry was not, however, actually a member of the OAS organization.
Of several, Bastien-Thiry led the most prominent assassination attempt against de Gaulle. In preparation, his group had set up in the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart. On 22 August 1962, De Gaulle's car (an unarmoured Citroën DS) as well as nearby shops were raked with machine gun fire. De Gaulle, his wife and entourage were able to escape without injury. After the attempt, some fourteen bullet holes were found in the president's vehicle; another twenty were found to have struck the nearby Café Trianon; and an additional 187 spent shell casings were found on the pavement. This event was fictionalized in the 1971 book, "The Day of the Jackal". De Gaulle credited the unusual abilities of the DS vehicle with saving his life —even though the shots had punctured two of the tires, the car was still able to escape at full speed.
Bastien-Thiry was arrested when he came back from a mission in the United Kingdom. He was brought to trial before a military tribunal presided over by General Roger Gardet from 28 January to 4 March 1963. He was defended by a legal team consisting of attorneys Jacques Isorni, Richard Dupuy, Bernard Le Coroller, and Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour who would be a far-right candidate for the presidential election in 1965. While claiming that the death of de Gaulle would have been justified by the "genocide" of the European population of newly-independent Algeria (a reference mainly to the Oran massacre of 1962) and the killing of several tens or hundreds of thousands of mostly pro-French Moslems (harkis) by the FLN,[2] he claimed that while the other conspirators may have admittedly been trying to kill the head of state, he had only been attempting to capture de Gaulle so as to deliver him to a panel of sympathetic judges. Bastien-Thiry, who had been certified as "normal" by psychiatrists in spite of a history of clinical depression, was convicted and sentenced to death.
De Gaulle as President of France had the power of clemency. He pardoned those who fired the shots, but refused to pardon Bastien-Thiry despite an appeal from Bastien-Thiry's father to spare his son's life. Before the trial the president expressed his intention to grant clemency to Bastien-Thiry, saying the "idiot" would "get off with twenty years and in five years I'll free him" (Lacouture, 328). However, according to his son-in-law Alain de Boissieu, after the conspirators' conviction, de Gaulle stated his reasons for refusing to alter the sentence.
The execution took place only one week after the trial, which was unusual. Probably the biggest security plan in French judicial history was organized to take Bastien-Thiry from his cell to the place of his execution.[3] There were 2000 policemen posted along the way and 35 vehicles used. The government feared an escape was planned, and there had been a plan but it was abandoned. Paradoxically, the police plan was headed by Jean Cantelaube, a former security officer of De Gaulle. He has been recently identified as an intelligence agent who provided information to Bastien-Thiry's organization.[4]
Jean Bastien-Thiry was executed by firing squad at the Fort d'Ivry on 11 March 1963, while clutching his rosary. He refused to be blindfolded. He was 35 years old.
About Bastien-Thiry, de Gaulle said "The French need martyrs ... They must choose them carefully. I could have given them one of those idiotic generals playing ball in Tulle prison. I gave them Bastien-Thiry. They'll be able to make a martyr of him. He deserves it." (Lacouture, 329).