A brilliant high school student, he was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm.

At the age of 20, he was admitted at the first place at the competitive exam of agrégation de philosophie (high-level grade for teaching).

Soustelle wrote his first major book Mexique, Terre Indienne (Mexico is Indian) about his time with the Otomi.

[3] After the Armistice of 22 June 1940, he left Mexico to join the Free French Forces (FFL) in London.

From 1947 to 1951, he served as Secretary General of the Gaullist party Rassemblement du Peuple Français (RPF) and was one De Gaulle's closest counsellors.

[5] He was nominated Governor General of Algeria by Pierre Mendès France in 1955–56, favouring the integration of the Muslim community in the French Departments along the Mediterranean coast.

Soustelle was dismissed from the cabinet and the Gaullist party Union pour la nouvelle République (UNR) in 1960 and joined the terrorist Organisation armée secrète (OAS) in the fight against the independence of Algeria.