JAKARTA - Today, 58 years ago, French President Charles de Gaulle survived one of the assassination attempts. Charles de Gaulle was one of the most famous politicians in French history. He often became the target of assassination.
He survived more than 30 assassination attempts in his life, which allegedly involved the CIA. One of the stories, his survival was very dependent on his trusted driver and the role of his Citroen car.
At that time, a group called the OAS (Secret Army Organization) planned an assassination attempt against De Gaulle, who they believed had betrayed France by handing over Algeria to the Algerian nationalists. As dusk fell, de Gaulle and his wife were driving from the Elysee Palace to Orly Airport. As his black Citroen DS cruised passed through the Avenue de la Liberation in Paris at 70 miles per hour, 12 men armed with OAS opened fire on his car.
Quoted from History, Saturday, August 22, 140 bullets rained down on the car, most of them coming from behind. The gunfire killed two presidential bodyguards on a motorbike, shattered the rear windshield, and pierced all four tires. Even though the Citroen had front-wheel slippage, the driver was able to get out of the slip and drive to a safe place.
It was all thanks to the superior Citroen DS car suspension system. De Gaulle and his wife kept their heads down and walked out unscathed. Frederick Forsyth dramatized the shooting in his best-selling novel: "The Day of the Jackal", which was later made into a film.
