An ignored classic

Rating: 10/10 (3 March 2006)

All I want to add is some more background behind the conflict. Again the main source is Alistair Horne's book "A savage war of peace". Alistair Horne wrote a trilogy of books on 20th century French history incorporating Verdun, the fall of France in 1940 and the Algerian war. Although Britain also had an empire it seemed to be able to extricate itself from it in a less bloody manner and those colonies that did see conflict did not see the kind of bloodshed France experienced in Vietnam and Algeria. I think Britain was able to see that the concept of empire was politically, militarily, economically and morally unviable. The French did not seem to see it that way. Alistair Horne wrote that the French seemed to think that if the rebellion was repressed they could carry on ruling Algeria like Ian Smith's Rhodesia or apartheid era South Africa, a totally unrealistic option. I suppose all whites have to accept that attitudes were much more racist in that era which explains a lot. Also I suspect that after the humiliation of 1940 the French military were determined to win a battle. What is not generally known is that most of the Free French troops that fought in Italy and France in 1943/45 were from French north Africa. The brutal battle of Cassino in Italy was brought to a conclusion by these colonial troops making an outflanking manoeuvre over mountainous terraine. Most of the troops liberating Paris were colonial. The natives were liberating the mother country and many of them later led the FLN. French dissatisfaction with the ongoing war led in 1958 to General Charles De Gaulle being called out of 12 years of retirement. Most Frenchmen expected De Gaulle to crush the FLN but De Gaulle was a statesman not a 3rd rate politician and could see that long term France had to let Algeria go. When this became clear the French military in Algeria felt betrayed and astonishly tried to stage a coup d'etat in mainland France. It failed of course and many rebel officers went underground and formed a terrorist group called the OAS which murdered people in both mainland France and Algeria. The coup attempt was a PR disaster and most French people now wanted out of Algeria.
As independence for Algeria approached the OAS atrocities in the country made the situation untenable for the white colonist population after majority rule arrived. A million white colonists, many born and bred in Algeria fled for mainland France abandoning everything they owned and worked for in an incredible mass exodus. It was a retreat for western civilisation as villages and churches were abandoned to decay to be consumed by the majority Muslim culture. The OAS continued their campaign of terror in France, attempting to assassinate De Gaulle. And this of course inspired Frederick Forsythe to write the book "The Day of the Jackal", later a film. So whilst I feel sorry for the colonists who lost everything, their advocacy of "Algerie Francais" against a tide of De-colonisation was un-realistic and un-workable and led France and Algeria into a brutal and costly conflict. Fortunatly France was able to call on a man of the calibre of Charles De Gaulle who was able to convince the nation of the unpalatable truth, end the war and take France forward.