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Algerian putsch and start of France's May 1958 crisis

On May 13, 1958, French army officers and settlers in Algiers formed a Committee of Public Safety and seized control in Algiers, precipitating a political crisis that threatened the stability of the French Fourth Republic.

The uprising in Algeria alarmed the Eisenhower administration because it destabilized a major NATO ally and raised Cold War strategic concerns in the Mediterranean and North Africa, prompting close U.S. diplomatic monitoring and contingency planning.

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