Mendès-France chose a liberal-tough Resistance veteran to break the Algerian deadlock

Evidence

A new acquisition was the acting regimental commander of Dufour’s old 1st R.E.P., Major Élie Denoix de Saint-Marc. A member of an old Bordeaux family, at nineteen he had been deported to Buchenwald for his involvement in the Resistance, and had later fought in Indo-China, at Suez and in the Battle of Algiers — where he had voiced the strongest opposition to torture. With the face of a tormented ascetic, Saint-Marc was literally worshipped by his tough, pragmatic Legionnaires, who recognised and accepted the purity of his idealism. One day he was heard to exclaim, after a number of whiskies: “I’ve had enough, enough, enough! One day I shall commit a connerie, an enormous connerie, une connerie grande comme çal” And he did. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1334 (#complicates, via linked claim)

When the Blum-Viollette Bill collapsed, however, an impossible predicament confronted the liberals: on the one hand, they saw themselves looked on as renegades by Messali and the Ulema; on the other, they were rejected by the French. It was a bitter personal disillusion for Abbas, who, from this moment, began to move away from the ideal of assimilation towards some form of autonomy for Algeria. Thus, at least ideologically, he and his supporters were brought a long step closer to the “revolutionaries” — a progression, tragic for France, that was to be repeated each time “moderate” Algerian nationalists found their overtures repulsed by the government of France, or by the pied noir lobbies. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 115 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: France’s refusal to restrain settler fascism drove liberal Algerians to the F.L.N.; France’s rejection of moderate Algerian reformers radicalized them into revolutionaries — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 115; A Resistance veteran and anti-torture officer joined the 1961 conspirators — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1334

Related

• A Resistance veteran and anti-torture officer joined the 1961 conspirators (similarity 0.88)
• France’s refusal to restrain settler fascism drove liberal Algerians to the F.L.N. (similarity 0.83)
• France’s rejection of moderate Algerian reformers radicalized them into revolutionaries (similarity 0.82)
• Escalating polarization in 1960 crushed centrist moderates in France’s Algerian debate (similarity 0.79)
• French rejection of moderates repeatedly drove them toward revolutionary extremism (similarity 0.79)
• Closing legal channels of protest pushed Algerians toward violent resistance. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• A Resistance veteran and anti-torture officer joined the 1961 conspirators #complicates (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1334
• France’s refusal to restrain settler fascism drove liberal Algerians to the F.L.N. #corroborates (0.35)
• France’s rejection of moderate Algerian reformers radicalized them into revolutionaries #corroborates (0.30) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 115