Challe argued soldiers cannot die for vague objectives unlike mercenaries
Evidence
One does not propose to soldiers to go and get killed for an imprecise final objective…. This is the difference, moreover, between the mercenary army and the citizens’ army. One can thus only ask of soldiers of the army of Algeria today that they die in order for Algeria to remain French. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1058
Categorization
- DEFINE: Useful definitional contrast between a ‘mercenary army’ and ‘citizens’ army’ in the colonial context.
- XREF: connects to: French tactical victories could not win a prolonged elusive insurgency
Related
- Challe’s military victory was illusory because guerrilla forces could regenerate. (similarity 0.79)
- Challe confined the coup to Algeria to keep fighting the ALN (similarity 0.79)
- Army officers saw the Algerian war as both career security and a noble cause. (similarity 0.79)
- Challe’s focus on battlefield offensives blinded him to his colonels’ plotting (similarity 0.79)
- Challe’s countersurgency sought permanent occupation of rebel strongholds rather than one-off victories (similarity 0.78)