French prime minister who promised a ceasefire within four months after Điện Biên Phủ and concluded the 1954 Geneva Accords
A Radical Party lawyer and economist of Jewish descent, he joined the Free French during the war. An early critic of the Indochina War, he became prime minister on 17 June 1954, after the fall of Điện Biên Phủ, promising to resign if he failed to secure a ceasefire within four months, and kept the promise with the Geneva Accords of 21 July. In eight months in office he conceded autonomy to Tunisia, and the Algerian War broke out that November; he also laid the groundwork for military co-operation with Israel and the French nuclear programme.