In 1907, French forces occupied a large part of present-day Morocco. It became a French protectorate in 1912, with a Franco-Spanish agreement turning the country’s northern-most part into a Spanish protectorate. Morocco gained independence in 1956, the same year as Tunisia, which from 1881 had been a French protectorate as well. The two North African countries obtained independence more easily than their common neighbor, Algeria. But they, too, had to fight hard. After World War II Moroccan nationalists did so seeking the support not only of fellow colonial elites and of already decolonized states like Egypt, which indeed adapted a rather ambiguous stance towards them. Rather, as David Stenner’s Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State (2019) has shown, they also nurtured contacts in Europe and in the United States. The latter’s postwar might made it of critical importance for the Moroccans, who sought to gain US governmental and public opinion support vis-à-vis France. These postwar moves built on networks rooted in the interwar period and in World War II. (In fact, Vichy-controlled Morocco was one of the first polities aligned with Nazi Germany that US and British forces conquered in the war, in November 1942.)

Another important arena for post-World War II Moroccan nationalists was the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York. There, they received organizational and political help from recently independent states like Indonesia and some Arab states. In turn, in the later 1950s Morocco would help Algeria’s Front de Libération Nationale at the UN.

The text reprinted here reflects the Moroccan interest in the UN. It is the English translation of an Arabic letter written by the leadership of a Moroccan nationalist movement, the Party of National Reform. It introduced its emissary to the UN and to the United States, Mehdi Bennouna (1918-2010). A son of the “father of Moroccan nationalism,” Hajj Abdelsalam, he was one of the few Anglophone Moroccan nationalists. In 1929 he had been sent to attend high school in a nationalist Arab school in British Mandate Palestine, and in the later 1930s studied inter alia at the American University of Cairo.

A Chinese Communist Party digest summarizing recent meetings held between Deng Xiaoping and foreign counterparts.

In this issue, Zhou Enlai congratulates the Prime Minister of Morocco, Mbarek Bekkay, and the Prime Minister of Tunisia, Tahar Ben Ammar, after both countries won their independence. One section announces a Sino-North Vietnamese civilian air transport service agreement; while another features a Sino-Soviet agreement to develop various industries and build a railway between Lanzhou and Aktogay (now in Kazakhstan). Finally, other sections discuss managing cooperatives, higher education, and provincial administrative concerns.

Authorization request to eliminate an organizer of a French legion deserters organization, Schulz Lesum, in Tetouan, Morocco.

List of 47 paramilitary actions conducted or planned by the French Service Action between January 1956 and Summer 1958.

Moroccan Ambassador Al Fassi speaks with Rakhmatov about his visit to Tajikistan and the outlook for the Tajik republic.

Description of the new office of the Committee for the Liberation of the Arab Maghreb in Cairo, as well as activity in the Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria offices, consideration of opening a Tunisian main office in Lebanon, and progress of the Tunisian and Moroccan independence movements.

Said Ramadan describes his travels to Morocco, Turkey, and Indonesia and his observations of Muslim civilizations.

Zhou discusses China's relationships across the Middle East, including PRC policy toward Israel. He also reviews the proposed nuclear-weapons-free-zones in Africa and Latin America, as well as developments concerning the Non-Aligned Movement and the Second Asian-African Conference.

The document records a conversation between Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Algerian President Ben Bella, focusing on their shared opposition to imperialism and their support for Vietnam's struggle against US aggression. They discuss international dynamics, including the Soviet Union's inconsistent stance on Vietnam, Algeria’s efforts to mediate regional conflicts, and broader issues affecting Asia and Africa, such as the Second Asian-African Conference and United Nations reform. Both leaders emphasize the importance of solidarity among socialist and anti-imperialist nations while critiquing the actions of imperialist forces in Africa and Southeast Asia.

This document summary was generated by an artificial intelligence language model and was reviewed by a Wilson Center staff member.