A Savage War of Peace

by Alistair Horne

  [1] In 1963 Algeria received from France loans of 1,300,000,000 francs — compared with only 500,000,000 and 250,000,000 from the U.S.S.R. and China respectively.

  [2] Renamed, under Bidault, the Conseil National de la Résistance (C.N.R.).

  [3] To the author Christian Fouchet, de Gaulle’s last High Commissioner, admitted that even at the time of Evian he never foresaw that the pieds noirs would all be able to stay forever: “It would certainly have been impossible for them to have continued to hold land — there would, at best, have been a transitional period of, say, fifteen years — then they would have had to give up.”

  [4] What would have happened had the exodus taken place during a time of economic recession, instead of boom, daunts the imagination.

  [5] During his first weeks in prison he wrote his account of the 1961 putsch, Notre Révolte, at top speed on the assumption that de Gaulle was certain to have him shot.

  [6] In March 1976 Ben Khedda and Abbas entered the political lists again, briefly, in signing a manifesto to President Boumedienne demanding democratic freedoms and an end to the conflict with Morocco over the Polisario. Both were placed under house arrest; Ben Khedda died a short time later.

  [7] After six years of legal wrangling, the Swiss Supreme Court finally ruled against the Algerian government’s claim to the money, on the grounds that Khider had paid it into a personal account, and that he was the real owner — not the F.L.N. “which at the time had no legal existence”. Thus the money remains, apparently, still in limbo and presumably frozen indefinitely. Following Gorel’s presumed death, the identity of the ultimate beneficiaries of the missing O.A.S. funds remains a mystery.

  Afterword

  HE knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen-chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it roused up its rats again and sent them forth to die in a happy city.

  Albert Camus, La Peste, 1947

  Colonel Godard’s Organogram

  Following the death of Godard in Belgium, the original organogram, written in his own hand-writing during the Battle of Algiers in 1957, found its way to the Hoover Library in California, where it was discovered by the author in 1981. Many of the names such as Yacef Saadi appear prominently in the text. The wrong and inconsistent spellings are Godard’s.

  Political and Military Abbreviations

  A.L.N. Armée de Libération Nationale

  A.M.L. Amis du Manifeste et de la Liberté

  B.E.L. Bureau d’Études et de Liaisons

  B.P.C. Bataillon de Parachutistes de Choc

  C.C.E. Comité de Coordination et d’Exécution

  C.N.R. Conseil National de la Résistance

  C.N.R.A. Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne

  C.R.S. Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité

  C.R.U.A. Comité Révolutionnaire d’Unité et d’Action

  D.O.P. Détachement Opérationnel de Protection

  D.P.U. Dispositif de Protection Urbaine

  D.S.T. Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire

  F.A.F. Front de l’Algérie Française

  F.L.N. Front de Libération Nationale

  F.N.F. Front National Français

  G.-G. Gouvernement-Général

  G.P.R.A. Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne

  G.R.E. Groupement de Renseignement et d’Exploitation

  M.N.A. Mouvement Nationaliste Algérienne

  M.P.C. Mouvement pour la Communauté

  M.R.P. Mouvement Républicain Populaire

  M.T.L.D. Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques

  O.A.S. Organisation Armée Secrète

  O.P.A. Organisation Politico-Administrative

  O.S. Organisation Spéciale

  P.C.A. Parti Communiste Algérien

  P.C.F. Parti Communiste Français

  P.P.A. Parti du Peuple Algérien

  P.S.U. Parti Socialiste Unifié

  R.C.P. Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes

  R.E.P. Régiment Étranger Parachutistes

  R.P.C. Régiment Parachutiste Coloniale

  R.P.F. Rassemblement du Peuple Français

  S.A.S. Section Administrative Spécialisé

  S.D.E.C.E. Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionage

  S.F.I.O Section Française de l’Internationale Ouvrière

  U.D.M.A. Union Démocratique pour le Manifeste Algérien

  U.F.N.A. Union Française Nord-Africaine

  U.G.T.A. Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens

  U.T. Unités Territoriales

  Z.A.A. Zone Autonome d’Alger

  Chronology

  1830 France occupies Algiers

  1847 Abd-el-Kader surrenders

  1871 French loss of Alsace-Lorraine steps up colonisation of Algeria

  1936 Blum—Viollette reforms for Algeria: not implemented

  1940 Fall of France

  1942 8 November: Allied landings in Algeria and Morocco

  1945 8 May: V.E. Day: Algerian revolt in Sétif followed by severe reprisals

  1954 7 May: Fall of Dien Bien Phu in Indo-China

  18 June: Mendès-France comes to power

  1 November: All Saints’ Day: the Algerian war begins

  1955 25 January: Soustelle appointed governor-general

  6 February: Mendès-France falls

  18–24 April: F.L.N. attend Bandung Conference of “Third World”

  20 August: F.L.N. massacre pieds noirs at Philippeville

  1956 26 January: Mollet succeeds Faure as prime minister

  2 February: Soustelle goes, replaced by Lacoste

  18 May: Palestro Massacre of French conscripts

  20 August: Soummam Conference established F.L.N. policy

  30 September: Yacef’s girls bomb Milk-Bar and Cafétéria: Battle of Algiers begins

  16 October: Interception of Athos loaded with arms from Egypt for F.L.N.

  22 October: Ben Bella hijacked and imprisoned by French

  5 November: Anglo-French landings at Suez

  14 December: Salan appointed Commander-in-Chief in Algeria

  1957 7 January: Massu’s paras take over Algiers

  16 January: Bazooka attempt to kill Salan

  28 January: General strike begins in Algiers — broken by paras

  21 May: Mollet falls: France is 22 days with no government

  31 May: Massacre of peasants by F.L.N. at Mélouza

  2 July: J. F. Kennedy’s speech supporting Algerian independence

  24 September: Yacef captured: Battle of Algiers won by Massu

  5 November: Gaillard succeeds Bourgès-Maunoury as prime minister

  26 December: Liquidation of Ramdane Abane

  1958 7 January: Saharan oil begins to flow

  8 February: French bomb Sakiet in Tunisia

  15 April: Gaillard falls; France 37 days with no government

  13 May: Algiers mob seizes government buildings and demands de Gaulle

  1 June: de Gaulle becomes prime minister

  4 June: de Gaulle makes triumphant visit to Algeria (“Je vous ai compris”)

  19 September: G.P.R.A. (Provisional Government of the Algerian Revolution) formed

  3 October: de Gaulle offers paix des braves to the rebels

  12 December: Challe and Delouvrier replace Salan

  21 December: de Gaulle is elected president of France

  1959 22 July: Operation “Binoculars”; climax of Challe offensive

  16 September: de Gaulle offers Algeria “self-determination”

  1960 19 January: Massu sacked for attacking de Gaulle’s policy

  24 January: “Barricades Week”; “ultras” shoot gendarmes

  29 January: de Gaulle speaks, revolt collapses
<
br />   23 April: Challe “promoted” away from Algeria

  10 June: Si Salah makes abortive peace approach to de Gaulle

  25–29 June: French peace talks with F.L.N. at Melun: failure

  6 September: “Manifesto of the 121” inciting conscripts to desert

  28–29 September: Ferhat Abbas goes to Moscow and Peking

  23 November: Joxe and Morin replace Delouvrier

  9–13 December: Muslim backlash as de Gaulle visits Algeria

  20 December: United Nations recognises Algeria’s right to self-determination

  1961 25 January: O.A.S. emerges: assassination of Maitre Popie

  20–26 April: “Generals’ putsch” in Algiers: de Gaulle triumphs

  25 April: France explodes atomic bomb at Reggane in Sahara

  19 May: 19 O.A.S. explosions in Algiers

  20 May–28 July: First peace talks at Evian: failure

  19–23 July: Fighting between France and Tunisia at Bizerta

  8 September: Assassination attempt on de Gaulle at Pont-sur-Seine

  1962 7 February: Bomb intended for Malraux in Paris blinds girl of 4

  February: O.A.S. kill 553 people

  7–18 March: Second Evian peace talks: agreement signed

  19 March: Cease-fire between French and F.L.N.

  20 April: Salan captured

  17 June: Truce between O.A.S. and F.L.N.: exodus of pieds noirs

  1 July: Referendum on independence

  15 September: Ben Bella becomes president

  1965 19 June: Boumedienne overthrows Ben Bella

  1978 27 December: Death of Boumedienne; Bendjedid becomes president

  1984 Signs of some liberalisation of one-party F.L.N. regime

  1992 Government under Liamine Zeroual cancels second round of national elections. F.I.S. banned and civil war begins.

  June: Mohamed Boudiaf assassinated

  1994 Vast new oil deposits found in Algeria

  1995 New national elections return Zeroual by landslide 61 per cent majority

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