Of the many world leaders who received death threats, Charles de Gaulle, (President of France from 1958 to 1969) is one of the president who repeatedly escaped from an assassination attempt to himself. The most famous of which occurred on the date August 22, 1962 where he and his wife were shot while driving a car. The plan was commandeered by  Colonel Jean-Marie-Thiry, a member of the French army and leader of the OAS (Organisation L’armee Secrete), a secret military organization that intends to impose de Gaulle because they thought the President had betrayed his country by giving independence to Algeria which was originally a French colony. The plan failed and Colonel Thiry was sentenced to death by a court miltier France in 1963.

That event inspired Frederick Forsyth to write the novel The Day of The Jackal (1971). Frederick Forsyth began his story just before the execution of Colonel Jean-Marie-Thiry. Then the story moves back into the events of the murder trial of de Gaulle commanded by Colonel Thiry.

The death of Colonel Thiry, as leader of the OAS did not make the despair of its members. Learning from previous failures, Colonel Rodin, one of the OAS officials made a secret plan to try again to kill President de Gaulle via the services of a professional killer. To prevent the leaking of this plan, only three OAS officials and the assassin know the plot.

The whole murder plan submitted to the assassin with a code-named “the Jackal”. OAS provides payment requested by the Jackal for 500 thousand dollars. After receiving an advance from the OAS, the Jackal started to perform a variety of preparations ranging from ordering a special weapon with bullets tipped that will destroy everything inside the skull, making 4 pieces of fake passports, and camouflage gear.

The assassination plot against President de Gaulle is smelled by the police, only this time they are made almost helpless because they know only the physical characteristics of the Jackal, tall with blond hair, other than that not a single archive and data owned by the French security on behalf of a murderer, when, where, and how this professional killer will be in action.

With the president’s life at stake, the French police, led by Claude Lebel, assisted by police from five European countries plus America and Africa to fight with time and intelligence of the Jackal in implementing the assigned tasks.