March 30, 2001

A New Book on Algerian History and a Reissued Spy Novel Revive Questions About a French Anthropologist

By SCOTT McLEMEE

INTERNATIONAL MEN OF MYSTERY: By the early 1960's, Jacques Soustelle was known for two things. One was his scholarly eminence; the anthropologist was France's leading authority on Aztec civilization. The other was a very public disagreement with his old friend Charles de Gaulle over independence for Algeria (which M. Soustelle opposed vehemently). So when a spy novel portrayed an intellectual named Soustelle plotting to assassinate the French president, it was decidedly more than a