14 Facts About Jacques Soustelle

Jacques Soustelle was born in Montpellier, into a Protestant working-class family.

Jacques Soustelle developed an interest in Ethnology while working at the Musee de l'Homme under Paul Rivet.

Rivet sent him to Mexico, after Jacques Soustelle became an Agrege, to study the Otomi people.

Jacques Soustelle wrote his first major book Mexique, Terre Indienne about his time with the Otomi.

Jacques Soustelle headed the intelligence service Bureau Central de Renseignements et d'Action.

Jacques Soustelle joined the Comite national francais, in London, then ran the commissariat national a l'Information.

Jacques Soustelle was a chairman of the Franco-Israel Alliance, which campaigned for a closer military relationship between France and Israel.

Jacques Soustelle was unharmed after three Front de Liberation Nationale members attempted to assassinate him by shooting his car on the Place de l'Etoile in Paris.

Jacques Soustelle asked De Gaulle for a presidential pardon for the only attacker who had been arrested and sentenced to death.

Jacques Soustelle disagreed with De Gaulle's sudden turn for Algerian independence.

Jacques Soustelle analyzed this turnaround in his book L'Esperance trahie.

Jacques Soustelle was dismissed from the cabinet and the Gaullist party Union pour la nouvelle Republique in 1960 and joined the terrorist Organisation armee secrete in the fight against the independence of Algeria.

Jacques Soustelle's activities led his being sued for attempting to undermine the authority of the French state.

Jacques Soustelle lived in exile between 1961 and his 1968 amnesty.