But at eight o'clock that evening something extraordinary happened that was to divide the Resistance leaders against each other and which could have ruined everything for de Gaulle.
"Presidential candidates Bush and Gore should check out their own backyards before touring the country to speak out against the digital divide, " the report said.
Political polarisation is part and parcel of the, as yet, unofficial election campaign - and not all of it is directed against the other side on the ethnic divide.