May 23, 1962 - Raoul Salan (pictured after his arrest last month), former chief of the terrorist Secret Army Organization (OAS), was sentenced today to life imprisonment by a high military tribunal in Paris. The decision came as a stunning surprise. Virtually no one thought the former general would escape the death penalty that was accorded by the same tribunal last month to Edmond Jouhaud, the former second in command of the Secret Army. When the verdict was announced, pandemonium broke out in the packed courtroom. The defense attorneys literally hurled themselves upon Salan and embraced him. Then, led by Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, the chief defense attorney, most of the crowd in the courtroom roared out the words of the “Marseillaise.” Cries of “Vive la France!” “Vive Salan!” and “Algérie Francaise!” rang out. As Salan was being hustled out of the embrace of his admirers and out of the courtroom by his guards, he turned back to cry: “This was the real France. Vive la France!” Salan had been found guilty on the five counts against him for his role in the generals’ revolt in Algeria in April 1961, and his subsequent activities as chief of the terrorist movement.
