Bendjedid, Chadli

Bendjedid, Chadli

(shăd`lē bĕnjədēd`), 1929–2012, Algerian army officer and political leader, president of Algeria (1979–92). A noncommissioned officer in France's Algerian army, he fought in Indochina, but in 1954 joined the National Liberation Front to fight for Algerian independence. An ally of Houari BoumedienneBoumedienne, Houari
, 1932?–78, president and prime minister of Algeria (1965–78). While studying in Cairo during the early 1950s he joined a group of expatriate Algerian nationalists that included Ahmed Ben Bella.
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, Bendjedid sided with him in his overthrow (1965) of Ahmed Ben BellaBen Bella, Ahmed
, 1919–2012, Algerian statesman. After World War II he joined the Algerian nationalist movement and soon became a leader of its underground paramilitary faction. He later (1952–56) served as director of the movement.
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. Bendjedid became a colonel in 1969 and when President Boumedienne died in 1978, he was the only candidate for the presidency. In the late 1980s Bendjedid instituted a multiparty system and other reforms, but when Islamists were poised to win power in 1992 he was forced out by the army and a military crackdown ensued.