Junior officers read de Gaulle’s self-determination speech as imminent defeat

Evidence

At the 1st Para Regiment of the Foreign Legion, encamped next to Challe’s headquarters in the Djurdjura, Captain Sergent told his commanding officer, Colonel Dufour: “For me, the F.L.N. flag is floating over Algiers from now on. Algeria will be independent.” Dufour replied, “You’re much too pessimistic.” But at this moment Sergent says he asked himself, “What was the point any more?…on 16 September 1959 I felt myself the very old citizen of a very old country.” Up on the Morice Line, Jules Roy met a disgruntled captain who declared: “The French intellectuals want peace. We don’t have much faith in the French intellectuals; they give up too easily.” Later the captain added: “I think the army will obey. But I also think you had better not ask me to do anything more for the West.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1060 (#expands, via linked claim)

With the full backing of Dufour the divisional padre, Père Delarue, declared in his benediction words then widely felt in the army: “You died at a time when, if we believe in the speeches we hear, we no longer know why we die….” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1295 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Junior officers saw Algerian independence immediately in de Gaulle’s self-determination speech; The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1060; Army morale collapsed because de Gaulle’s policies erased the soldiers’ sense of purpose — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1295

Related

• Junior officers saw Algerian independence immediately in de Gaulle’s self-determination speech (similarity 0.95)
• The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria (similarity 0.95)
• Army morale collapsed because de Gaulle’s policies erased the soldiers’ sense of purpose (similarity 0.86)
• The Algerian army command openly threatened to replace de Gaulle over self-determination. (similarity 0.82)
• The army viewed any negotiated ceasefire as toppling its war effort in Algeria (similarity 0.82)
• Army officers saw the Algerian war as both career security and a noble cause. (similarity 0.81)
• The self-determination speech widened the split between France and the army and settlers (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle’s triumphant Algeria slogans masked his private conviction the colony was doomed (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle. (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle took power in June 1958 offering no Algerian solution. (similarity 0.80)
• De Gaulle’s intransigent refusal to yield to the riots proved strategically correct (similarity 0.79)
• Dissident colonels threatened to replace de Gaulle with Challe. (similarity 0.79)
• De Gaulle sought army success to reconcile it to Algerian independence (similarity 0.79)
• De Gaulle’s intransigence aligned with French public opinion rather than his entourage’s despair (similarity 0.79)
• De Gaulle hid his Algerian self-determination policy because public opinion was unready (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria #expands (0.80) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1060
• Army morale collapsed because de Gaulle’s policies erased the soldiers’ sense of purpose #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1295