Operation Resurrection
Operation Resurrection was a planned military operation of the French Army in 1958 that sought to take over the capital of France, Paris, to force the return of Charles de Gaulle to head the government. Masterminded by General Jacques Massu, the operation was to be preceded by Opération Corse in which French Army paratroopers took over Corsica. The operation was cancelled after French politicians had immediately arranged for de Gaulle's return to power. Background General Charles de Gaulle headed the Free French Forces, which resisted Nazi Germany during World War II and became a national and military hero. Upon the liberation of France in 1944, de Gaulle became the French prime minister in a provisional government, but disagreements and political conflicts prompted him to quit and to retire from the military and politics in 1946. A decade later, the ensuing political conflicts of the French Fourth Republic, aggravated by the outbreak of the Algerian War and economic discontent, led to popular revolts against the government, which was headed by fractious political parties. The government's policy on Algeria angered the millions of French settlers, army officers and right-wing politicians in France. French Army generals in both Paris and Algiers began exerting