Censorship and metropolitan distraction masked the gravity of the Algiers crisis.

Evidence

When the first news reached France, because of army censorship in Algiers, compounded with distraction by their own surfeit of crises at home, ordinary Frenchmen did not at first take in just how deadly was the predicament in Algeria. The country was seized by a bad bout of la grippe; a quarter of the population of Metz was reported stricken. In Paris the spring collections were beginning, amid much speculation about slipping waistlines and vanished sleeves. In New York General Douglas MacArthur was about to celebrate his 80th birthday in his retreat atop the Waldorf Towers, still fuming at his dismissal by Truman at the beginning of the decade. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1106 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Most disappointingly of all perhaps for the F.L.N. was the fact that, after the initial shock of All Saints had subsided, the pieds noirs resumed their way of life as if absolutely nothing had happened; if anything, they had averted their gaze still further from the root causes of Algerian discontent. … In metropolitan France, Mendès-France had not been deflected from carrying out his North American tour in mid-November, and it was still not yet considered necessary to decree a state of emergency in Algeria. Deadlock threatened. Says Pierre Leulliette: “Fear engenders cruelty; cruelty, fear, insanity and then paralysis. In the centre of Dante’s circle, the damned remained motionless.” This vicious circle now began in Algeria. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 332 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Metropolitan France was largely oblivious to the gravity of the Algiers crisis. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1106; Pied noir denial and metropolitan complacency froze Algeria into a vicious deadlock — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 332

Related

• Metropolitan France was largely oblivious to the gravity of the Algiers crisis. (similarity 0.94)
• French metropolitan public had grown apathetic about Algeria by late 1961. (similarity 0.89)
• Pied noir denial and metropolitan complacency froze Algeria into a vicious deadlock (similarity 0.88)
• Algerian ultras refused to reckon with metropolitan France’s reaction (similarity 0.81)
• Pied noir survival in Algeria was untenable even without O.A.S. violence (similarity 0.81)
• French metropolitan democracy attenuated, while colonial Algeria criminalized, dissent against empire. (similarity 0.81)
• The barricade massacre crossed a catastrophic frontier in the Algerian war. (similarity 0.80)
• Paris judged Algiers as the gravest mob-seizure threat since 1934 (similarity 0.79)
• De Gaulle’s allies saw Algeria as subordinate to the French state’s crisis (similarity 0.79)
• An Algeria cut off from France could not survive more than a fortnight (similarity 0.78)
• Every French reform effort in Algeria was blocked by pied noir pressure groups (similarity 0.78)
• Pied noir denial and metropolitan distraction forestalled any French response to the revolt (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Metropolitan France was largely oblivious to the gravity of the Algiers crisis. #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1106
• Pied noir denial and metropolitan complacency froze Algeria into a vicious deadlock #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 332