The French State, French Algeria, and the OAS

McConaghy, Kieran

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-57267-7_3

Kieran McConaghy³

Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence ((RPV))

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Abstract

This chapter takes a look at the conflict in Algeria and France between the French state and the OAS, a short-lived organisation, emerging in the final years of the Algerian War of Independence and disappearing again shortly after Algeria gained its independence in 1962. This chapter highlights the shifts and turns in French history that serve to explain the conflict between the state and the OAS. It looks at the emergence of the OAS from the European settler community in Algeria and from within ultra, activist elements of the French state, and demonstrates how the divided loyalties of many state personnel and the strong affinities some felt for the retention of French Algeria took precedence over combating those who wished to damage the state.

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Notes

1.
See for example, I. Lustick, Unsettled States, Disrupted Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza (London: Cornell University Press, 1993), p. 120, pp. 446–7.
2.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 291.
3.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, p. 7.
4.
Ibid, p. 19.
5.
E. Behr, The Algerian Problem (London: Penguin, 1961), pp. 30–1.
6.
Ibid.
7.
A. Horne, The French Army and Politics 1870–1970 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1984), p. 78.
8.
A. Harrison, Challenging De Gaulle (St.Petersburg, FL: Hailer Publishing, 1989), p. 23.
9.
Ibid.
10.
Ibid, p. 24.
11.
Jules Ferry in Le Gouvernement de l’Agerie, 1892, quoted in E. Behr, The Algerian Problem, p. 29.
12.
See A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, pp. 31–2, on European migration to French controlled Algeria.
13.
A.Horne, A Savage War of Peace, pp. 30, 38–40.
14.
See for example, M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, pp. 49–62.
15.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 25.
16.
Matthew Connolly suggests that the burial of slain Algerians in mass graves and a cover up by French officials make an accurate casualty count impossible for this incident. See M. Connolly, ‘Rethinking the Cold War and Decolonization: The Grand Strategy of The Algerian War for Independence’, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 33/2, (2001) pp. 221–45, particularly p. 240 n. 7.
17.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, pp. 88–9.
18.
M. Kettle, De Gaulle and Algeria 1940–1960, p. 31.
19.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall Inc, 1968), p. xiii.
20.
P.M. Williams, Crisis and Compromise: Politics in the Fourth Republic (London: Longmans,1964), p. 1.
21.
O.D. Menard, The Army and the Fifth Republic (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), p. 10.
22.
J.S Ambler, The French Army in Politics: 1945–1962, (Colombus, OH: Ohio State University Press,1966), p. 4
23.
Ibid, p. 5, Alistair Horne however points to the reluctance of the army to fire on revolutionaries in both 1830 and 1848 as evidence that the army were not simply automatons. A. Horne, The French Army and Politics, 1870–1970, (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1984), p. 8.
24.
A. Horne, The French Army and Politics, p. 4.
25.
See A. Horne, The French Army and Politics: 1870–1970, pp. 21–42 in particular on the political infighting and outlook of the French army in the early twentieth century.
26.
O.D Menard, The Army and the Fifth Republic, p. 29.
27.
C de Gaulle, The Complete War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle, (trans) J. Griffin, and R. Howard, (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998), p. 81.
28.
G.A Kelly, ‘The French Army Re-enters Politics 1940–1955’, Political Science Quarterly, 76/3 (1961), p. 336.
29.
O.D. Menard, The Army and the Fifth Republic, p. 30.
30.
G.A Kelly, ‘The French Army Re-enters Politics 1940–1955’, p. 337.
31.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 8.
32.
Ibid, p. 11.
33.
Ibid.
34.
P. M. Williams, ‘How the Fourth Republic Died: Sources for the Revolution of May 1958‘, French Historical Studies, 3/1, (1963), p. 6.
35.
O.D Menard, The Army and the Fifth Republic, p. 126.
36.
Ibid, p. 129.
37.
Raoul Salan, quoted in M. Schain, ‘The Fifth Republic’, in E. Berenson, V. Duclert, and C. Prochasson (eds.), The French Republic: History, Values, Debates (Ithica, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press, 2011), p. 83.
38.
J.P. Sartre, ‘The Pretender’, in J.P. Sartre, Colonialism and Neocolonialism, p. 41.
39.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 17.
40.
P. Henissart, Wolves in the City: The Death of French Algeria, (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1971), p. 34.
41.
B.E. Brown, ‘The Army and Politics in France’, The Journal of Politics, 2/3, (1961), p. 270.
42.
Ibid.
43.
J.C. Cairns, ‘Algeria: The Last Ordeal’, Canadian International Journal, 17/2, (1962), p. 89.
44.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 33.
45.
Ibid, p. 48.
46.
D.C. Gordon, The Passing of French Algeria (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), p. 61.
47.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 467.
48.
M. Evans, ‘Algeria’ France’s Undeclared War, p. 292.
49.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, p. 294.
50.
Charles de Gaulle’s radio broadcast to France and Algeria, as cited in A. Werth, De Gaulle: A Political Biography, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965), p. 269.
51.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, p. 299.
52.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 463.
53.
Ibid.
54.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 101.
55.
D. Pickles, Algeria and France: From Colonialism to Cooperation, (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1963), p. 86.
56.
A. Werth, De Gaulle, p. 271.
57.
P. Henissart, Wolves in the City, p. 134.
58.
S. Berstein, The Republic of de Gaulle, 1958–1969, (trans.) P. Morris, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 52.
59.
A. Clayton, The Wars of French Decolonization, p. 171.
60.
M. Crenshaw, ‘The Effectiveness of Terrorism in the Algerian War’, p. 499.
61.
See for example G. Bocca, The Secret Army, pp. 90–4, on the importance and character of Degueldre and the Delta Commando.
62.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 488.
63.
See for example A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 487 on the lack of reliable police in Oran, and p. 490, on the levels of support for the OAS among the army units in Algeria under General Ailleret.
64.
P. Henissart, Wolves in the City, p. 136.
65.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 491.
66.
Henissart, Wolves in the City, p. 166, 246.
67.
Ibid, p. 253.
68.
Ibid, p. 253.
69.
D. Porch, The French Secret Service: From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), p. 400.
70.
D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 400.
71.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 153.
72.
D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 401.
73.
Compare D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 400, with P. Hennisart, Wolves in the City, pp. 255–6.
74.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 152, and C. Greenwood, ‘An Angel on His Shoulder’, Police Journal, 48/158 (1975), p. 159.
75.
R. Faligot, R., and P. Krop, La Piscine: The French Secret Service Since 1944, (trans.) W.D. Halls, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd, 1989), pp. 171–2.
76.
D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 400.
77.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 492.
78.
See A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 495.
79.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 495.
80.
See P. Hennisart, Wolves in the City, p. 174. on the problem with SDECE and the ongoing links between Godard of the OAS. See also, D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 399 on the activity of the French intelligence services on ‘both sides’; for and against the OAS.
81.
G. Merom, ‘A “Grand Design”? Charles de Gaulle and the End of the Algerian War’, Armed Forces and Society, 25/2, (1999), p. 272.
82.
Ibid, pp. 273–277.
83.
M. Evans, Algeria: France’s Undeclared War, pp. 285–6.
84.
J. Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Ruler 1945–1970, (trans.) A. Sheridan,(New York; London, W.W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 284.
85.
A. Sherman, ‘Climax in Algeria: The OAS and the Pieds Noirs’, The World Today, 18/4, (1962), p. 142. It should be said, however, that not insubstantial support existed for the OAS in France, as perhaps evidenced by the numerous monuments today glorifying the organisation in towns across the country. Those supporters were to form the backbone of the French far right in the decades after Algerian independence, though their numbers in the metropole were buoyed by former colons, and harkis who fled Algeria when the FLN came to power. See G. Murray, ‘France: The Riots and the Republic’, Race Relations, 47/4, (2006) p. 39. At the time of the OAS activity in France however, their support was diffuse and the networks upon which they relied to successfully operate were small and few.
86.
See G.A. Kelly, Lost Soldiers, p. 335, and G. Bocca, The Secret Army, pp. 145–6.
87.
P. Hennisart, Wolves in the City, p. 274.
88.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, pp. 142–3.
89.
Ibid, p. 111.
90.
J. Cairns, ‘Algeria: The Last Ordeal’, p. 88.
91.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 503.
92.
D. Porch, The French Secret Service, p. 402.
93.
C. Greenwood, ‘An Angel on His Shoulder’, p. 160.
94.
A characteristic perhaps best displayed on his triumphant return in August 1944 as leader of the Free French forces, parading through a liberated Paris and continuing with ceremonial functions despite some incidences of gunfire, no doubt aimed at de Gaulle and his men. See D. Cook, Charles de Gaulle: A Biography, (London: Seeker & Warburg, 1984), pp. 249–51.
95.
C. Greenwood, ‘An Angel on His Shoulder’, p. 164.
96.
J.C. Cairns, ‘President de Gaulle and the “Regime of Misfortune”’, International Journal, 18/1, (1962/1963), p. 61.
97.
G. Merom, ‘A “Grand Design”?’, p. 280.
98.
See P.C. Naylor, France and Algeria, pp. 29–31, 34.
99.
See D. Pickles, Algeria and France, pp. 106–10, on the precise nature of the safeguards for the European community in Algeria; safeguards which turned out to be redundant given the mass exodus of Europeans post-independence.
100.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 503.
101.
Ibid. p. 504.
102.
D.C. Gordon, The Passing of French Algeria, p. 68.
103.
D. Pickles, Algeria and France, p. 106.
104.
Ibid, p. 111.
105.
Ibid, p. 112.
106.
Ibid.
107.
D.C. Gordon, The Passing of French Algeria, p. 77.
108.
S. Berstein, The Republic of de Gaulle, p. 56.
109.
T. Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization, p. 82.
110.
G. Bocca, The Secret Army, p. 129.
111.
Ibid.
112.
P. Henissart, Wolves in the City, p. 212.
113.
Ibid, p. 213.
114.
A. Harrison, Challenging De Gaulle, pp. 123–5.
115.
Ibid, p. 126. Harrison also posits that Degueldre may have been set up by Susini, another high-ranking OAS leader, but comments that this is purely speculative. In either case, the OAS were by this point a sinking ship, even its leadership was riddled with dissent and disagreement.
116.
A. Harrison, Challenging de Gaulle, p. 127.
117.
P. Henissart, Wolves in the City, p. 382.
118.
A. Horne, A Savage War of Peace, p. 528.
119.
G.A Kelly, Lost Soldiers, p. 348.
120.
Ibid, p. 351.
121.
O.D Menard, The Army and the Fifth Republic, p. 49.

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University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
Kieran McConaghy

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McConaghy, K. (2017). The French State, French Algeria, and the OAS. In: Terrorism and the State. Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57267-7_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57267-7_3
Published: 17 June 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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Online ISBN: 978-1-137-57267-7
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