Junior officers saw Algerian independence immediately in de Gaulle’s self-determination speech

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In his memoirs de Gaulle declares that, “In saying this I was giving my audience an inkling of my intention to recognise Algeria’s right to self-determination,” and he adds that before leaving Challe that day he informed him in private “precisely what I was soon to announce publicly. Challe replied: ‘It’s feasible!’ and assured me that I could count on him whatever happened.” Challe, however, insists that he was left no wiser than any of the hundred other officers present at the earlier briefing, and never once in his whole tournée des popotes did de Gaulle actually mention the key-word, “self-determination”, which was to create such a furore a few weeks later. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1039 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: De Gaulle took power in June 1958 offering no Algerian solution.; Junior officers read de Gaulle’s self-determination speech as imminent defeat; The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1060 (+3 more)

Related

• Junior officers read de Gaulle’s self-determination speech as imminent defeat (similarity 0.95)
• The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria (similarity 0.94)
• De Gaulle and Challe gave conflicting accounts of the self-determination private briefing. (similarity 0.87)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle. (similarity 0.86)
• De Gaulle took power in June 1958 offering no Algerian solution. (similarity 0.85)
• De Gaulle hid his Algerian self-determination policy because public opinion was unready (similarity 0.85)
• The Algerian army command openly threatened to replace de Gaulle over self-determination. (similarity 0.85)
• De Gaulle’s triumphant Algeria slogans masked his private conviction the colony was doomed (similarity 0.84)
• Gaulle hid his Algeria intentions to avoid capsizing French public opinion. (similarity 0.84)
• Dissident colonels threatened to replace de Gaulle with Challe. (similarity 0.84)
• Challe’s loyalty to the republic collapsed only when de Gaulle shifted toward Algerian self-determination (similarity 0.83)
• de Gaulle’s self-determination offer came too late to save Algérie française (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle’s June 1958 Algiers rhetoric was deliberately ambiguous, hiding his pessimism (similarity 0.82)
• The army viewed any negotiated ceasefire as toppling its war effort in Algeria (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle’s intransigent refusal to yield to the riots proved strategically correct (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Junior officers read de Gaulle’s self-determination speech as imminent defeat #corroborates (0.90)
• The self-determination speech instantly demoralized junior officers in Algeria #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1060
• De Gaulle and Challe gave conflicting accounts of the self-determination private briefing. #responds-to (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1039
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle. #complicates (0.40)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain irreducibly ambiguous even to his closest associates. #complicates (0.35) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1145