French military contempt and complacency blinded them to the coming revolt

Evidence

At a first emergency conference summoned by Léonard early on the morning of the 1st, he, Vaujour and General Cherrière, the Army Commander-in-Chief, all agreed that, from the evidence already available, it was a question of isolated incidents rather than of any general insurrection. Equally it was agreed (thus giving roots to the fateful legend) that all must have been decreed from Cairo, and not set up within Algeria itself. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 299 (#expands, via linked claim)

Vidal-Naquet, himself a declared opponent of the established government, admits freely that “no country involved in similar horrors has ever permitted publication of such complete documentation on the subject”. The vehemence of the public outcry, however, was also to have its repercussions in other directions. Army generals like General Allard, corps commander for the Algiers area and Massu’s immediate superior, themselves immaculate of any reproach of association with torture, protested bitterly to the Ministry of Defence against the anti-army attacks in the Press. Their “incessant repetition”, he wrote, “places at risk the morale of the army”. All through the army in Algeria, and, of course, particularly among the paras who saw themselves as the principal target of such attacks, there was an increasingly savage feeling that they had been called in to carry out the dirty work of the civil authorities and were now being carted for it. Once again the plaint, “On nous a fait le coup”, began to be heard in the messes. It was yet another brick in the wall of resentment and contempt rapidly rising against the politicians of the Fourth Republic. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 735 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Challe’s focus on battlefield offensives blinded him to his colonels’ plotting; French protests against torture deepened the army’s contempt for the Fourth Republic — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 735; French officials mistook the revolt for isolated Cairo-directed incidents — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 299 (+7 more)

Related

• French protests against torture deepened the army’s contempt for the Fourth Republic (similarity 0.89)
• French officers dismissed rebel sightings two days before the revolt (similarity 0.88)
• Army disaffection and Fourth Republic decay were visible inside the state before 1958 (similarity 0.86)
• Exposure of the secret truce talks deepened the army’s contempt for civilian government (similarity 0.83)
• French officials mistook the revolt for isolated Cairo-directed incidents (similarity 0.83)
• Interior F.L.N. leaders distrusted the Cairo external delegation over arms. (similarity 0.82)
• France believed wrongly that toppling Nasser would collapse the Algerian revolt. (similarity 0.82)
• The failed December 1960 coup irrevocably committed part of the French army to revolt (similarity 0.82)
• Pied noir denial and metropolitan distraction forestalled any French response to the revolt (similarity 0.82)
• Heavy-handed military reprisals in Algeria drove more Algerians to join the rebels. (similarity 0.82)
• Challe’s focus on battlefield offensives blinded him to his colonels’ plotting (similarity 0.81)
• Army disaffection extended into the Fourth Republic’s highest levels (similarity 0.81)
• Fear of another Indochina made the army resent the Fourth Republic’s political system (similarity 0.80)
• The Suez humiliation within the officer corps seeded the later 1958 revolt. (similarity 0.80)
• Army officers saw the Algerian war as both career security and a noble cause. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• French officials mistook the revolt for isolated Cairo-directed incidents #expands (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 299
• French protests against torture deepened the army’s contempt for the Fourth Republic #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 735