In the evening of 22 August 1962, a procession of black Citroën DS 19s was making its way to a military airfield on the outskirts of Paris. In the lead car was the French president, General Charles de Gaulle. At the Petit-Clamart roundabout a 12-man military-style commando group machine-gunned it, but the occupants ducked and were saved by the armour plating. The driver escaped on burst tyres.
The group was led by thirty-five-year-old air force Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Bastien-Thiry. He regarded de Gaulle as a traitor for having concluded the Evian agreement of the previous 18 March, which granted independence to Algeria.
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