V o L u m e I : a d

Servan-Schreiber, Jean-Jacques. Lieutenant in Algeria. Translated by Ronald Matthews.

New York: Knopf, 1957.

Smith, Tony. The French Stake in Algeria, 1945–1962. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University

Press, 1978.

Talbott, John. The War without a Name: France in Algeria, 1954–1962. New York: Knopf,

1980.

Watson, William E. Tricolor and Crescent: France and the Islamic World. Westport:

Praeger, 2003.

Albanian politician and communist leader. Born on 18 October 1925 in

Shköder, Albania, to a Muslim family from the Kosovo region of Yugoslavia,

Ramiz Alia joined the Communist Party of Albania in 1943 and served as

political commissar with Albanian troops fighting with Yugoslav partisans

against Axis forces. After the war, he held leadership positions in the party’s

youth organization and joined the party’s Central Committee and the Polit-

buro in 1948 and 1956, respectively. A protégé of Albanian leader Enver

Hoxha, Alia rose through the party ranks, holding various party and govern-

mental positions over the next several decades.

In the early 1980s, Alia became Hoxha’s chosen successor. After Hoxha’s

death in April 1985, Alia became first secretary of the Central Committee and

de facto leader of Albania. As such, he pledged to uphold his predecessor’s

policies. Albania’s economic problems and international isolation, however,

influenced Alia’s pursuit of pragmatic reforms, including easing restrictions

on international trade, land ownership, and religion. But these reforms did

little to stop the country’s downward spiral. By the end of 1990, demonstra-

tions had erupted throughout Albania, and opposition to the Communist

Party’s monopoly forced Alia to abandon one-party rule. In March 1991 Alia

permitted multiparty elections, which the communists nonetheless won.

Although Alia lost his seat in parliament, he became president in April 1991

but was forced to relinquish his party posts. In a free election held in March

1992, the opposition routed the communists in the now-renamed Socialist

Party. As a result, Alia resigned the presidency on 3 April 1992. In 1994 he

was arrested and convicted of political corruption while serving in office.

After a year in prison, Alia retired from public life.

Gregory C. Ference

See also

Albania; Europe, Eastern; Hoxha, Enver

References

Vickers, Miranda. The Albanians: A Modern History. New York: I. B. Tauris, 1999.

Vickers, Miranda, and James Pettifer. Albania: From Anarchy to Balkan Identity. New

York: New York University Press, 1997.

108

Alia, Ramiz

Alia, Ramiz

(1925–)

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Peruvian reformist political party. While in exile in Mexico, Peruvian politi-

cian Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre founded the Peruvian reformist party

Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), also known as the Par-

tido Aprista, in May 1924. The revolutionary platform of the APRA called for

major social reform, political unification of Latin America, and the establish-

ment of worldwide solidarity of the oppressed. Despite the lower-class, pop-

ulist overtones of his impassioned oratory, Haya de la Torre maintained that

it was the oppressed middle class who would lead the movement.

After his return to Peru in 1931, Haya de la Torre ran unsuccessfully for

the presidency. When a radical APRA member assassinated Sánchez Cerro,

the newly elected president, in April 1933, the government retaliated with

military force to subdue the APRA. Because the APRA was at times guilty of

violent radicalism, the authorities outlawed it from 1941 through 1945 and

from 1948 through 1956. Nonetheless, the APRA continued to influence pol-

itics in Peru. After decades of struggle, the APRA finally succeeded in elect-

ing Alan García president in 1985; he went on to lose a subsequent election

to Alberto Fujimori in 1990.

Although APRA leaders never controlled the country for any significant

period of time, their early activities created consensus within the Peruvian

reform movement. Unfortunately, they were not able to foster the continua-

tion of that consensus, and the APRA ultimately failed to achieve its goals.

Lisa Miles Bunkowski

See also

Peru

References

Clinton, Richard Lee. “APRA: An Appraisal.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and

World Affairs 12(2) (1970): 280–297.

Graham, Carol. Peru’s APRA: Parties, Politics, and the Elusive Quest for Democracy. Boul-

der, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1992.

———. “Peru’s APRA Party in Power: Impossible Revolution, Relinquished Re-

form.” Journal of InterAmerican Studies & World Affairs 32(3) (1990): 75–115.

Left-wing politician and president of Chile (1970–1973). Born on 26 July

1908 in Valparaíso, Chile, Salvador Allende Gossens was of middle-class ori-

gins. He trained as a physician but never practiced medicine. Allende was a

cofounder, and eventually the standard-bearer, of the Chilean Socialist Party

and also served in its militia as a young man. He went on to serve as cabinet

minister and president of the Chilean senate.

Allende Gossens, Salvador

109

Alianza Popular

Revolucionaria

Americana

Allende Gossens,

Salvador

(1908–1973)

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Allende ran for president four times, finally winning a plurality by 39,000

votes as leader of Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), a leftist coalition, on

4 September 1970. He had been a thorn in the side of several U.S. presiden-

tial administrations, as policymakers feared that an Allende presidency

would bring about a communist state, open to Soviet influence in the region

and a threat to American interests in Chile.

President Richard M. Nixon was a particularly vociferous opponent of

Allende and publicly stated as much after the 1970 election. The Chilean

constitution stipulated that the Chilean congress must choose the president

if no candidate won by a majority. Behind the scenes, U.S. Ambassador

Edward M. Korry tried unsuccessfully to assemble a consensus to deny

Allende the presidency. In addition, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

covertly provided weapons to right-wing conspirators to foment a coup,

which was also unsuccessful. Allende was inaugurated on 3 November 1970.

As Allende instituted socialist programs and established diplomatic ties

with Cuba’s communist leader Fidel Castro, Washington simultaneously at-

tempted to squeeze the Chilean economy while secretly giving some $7 mil-

lion to Allende’s political adversaries. Allende’s socialist economic policies

helped create inflation and shortages in Chile, alienating the middle and

110

Allende Gossens, Salvador

Chilean President Salvador Allende speaks before a crowd in Santiago, Chile. The leftist Allende was president during

1970–1973 and was overthrown by a U.S.-supported coup led by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. (AFP/Getty 

Images)

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