Porous frontiers shaped the Algerian War’s outcome and de Gaulle’s rise

Evidence

As Raymond Aron had noted perceptively, that deep ingrained sense of past humiliations had to be exorcised, and “If the army could achieve an incontestable success, it might be less hostile to the creation of an Algerian state.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1002 (#expands, via linked claim)

In his enigmatic utterances the saviour did little to dispel such tenets, so that the eventual disillusion would be all the greater. Critics and adversaries of de Gaulle could—with reason—accuse him of every manner of volte-face in his handling of Algeria, but with their eyes blinkered by the immediacy of the war itself they were unable to see on what de Gaulle’s gaze was fixed. From his great height the eyes quested far over the heads of lesser humans to the peaks of a distant promised land. If there was one thing in the pursuit of which he was unwavering all through his life, it was the grandeur de la France, dreamed of in those solitary years in the wilderness. In the long term nothing else mattered, or would be allowed to stand in its way, and this should be retained in the mind as a key to all the enigma of his subsequent actions. He would achieve his dream; even though in the course of it Algeria would be lost, had to be lost. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 913 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Porous frontiers enabled FLN sanctuary and French political collapse.; French decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia handed the F.L.N. open frontiers; The barricade massacre crossed a catastrophic frontier in the Algerian war. (+3 more)

Related

• De Gaulle’s pursuit of national grandeur required sacrificing Algeria. (similarity 0.87)
• De Gaulle sought army success to reconcile it to Algerian independence (similarity 0.86)
• Algeria was only one element of de Gaulle’s larger ambitions. (similarity 0.85)
• De Gaulle’s pursuit of national grandeur dictated abandoning Algeria (similarity 0.85)
• The barricade massacre crossed a catastrophic frontier in the Algerian war. (similarity 0.84)
• De Gaulle’s allies saw Algeria as subordinate to the French state’s crisis (similarity 0.83)
• France’s Algerian military dominance coexisted with its political weakness at home (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle’s Algerian independence was framed as a victory over French self (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle’s conciliatory gestures angered the army while winning no concessions from the F.L.N. (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle presented secession as one of Algeria’s three possible futures. (similarity 0.82)
• Army officers saw the Algerian war as both career security and a noble cause. (similarity 0.82)
• A broad front of ex-ministers formed around Algérie française in 1960. (similarity 0.81)
• French decolonization of Morocco and Tunisia handed the F.L.N. open frontiers (similarity 0.81)
• France’s granting independence to Morocco and Tunisia in 1956 gave the F.L.N. open frontiers (similarity 0.81)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle. (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• De Gaulle sought army success to reconcile it to Algerian independence #expands (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1002
• De Gaulle’s pursuit of national grandeur required sacrificing Algeria. #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 913