The F.L.N. mirrored French collective responsibility with collective reprisals

Evidence

In a mood almost of desperation, Zighout and Ben Tobbal convened a council of war at the end of June to launch, for the first time, a policy of total war on all French civilians, regardless of age and sex. Justifying it, Zighout declared: “To colonialism’s policy of collective repression [author’s italics] we must reply with collective reprisals against the Europeans, military and civil, who are all united behind the crimes committed upon our people. For them, no pity, no quarter!” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 373 (#expands, via linked claim)

Then Manévy was transferred to Constantine where he witnessed a terrorist grenade attack on a 14 July parade. Several paras were wounded. One of Manévy’s age panicked, fired into the crowd, and killed a Muslim woman on a balcony. Next, a hundred of the paras, some evidently fortified with anisette, broke loose, heading towards the Casbah to avenge their wounded with shouts of “Les melons! Les melons!” Unable to find any Muslims, they first smashed up a Jewish shop. At the height of the ratonnade a large French civilian intervened angrily from a nearby billiard saloon: “I am Captain Bottier; I fought myself; I did thirty-seven jumps with the Resistance.… You band of little idiots — you’re doing exactly what the F.L.N. terrorists count on you doing.…” To Manévy, Captain Bottier disclosed that he was an S.A.S. officer in from the bled, adding, “Two months of work as an S.A.S. officer are wrecked in one evening like this.” — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 521 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Somewhat defensively, Soustelle claims that “collective responsibility” was effective, at least when applied to repairs of roads and telegraph poles; it accorded with the Arab mentality of respecting strength, despising weakness. At the same time, however, as Germaine Tillion pointed out, it gravely offended the Chaouias’ deep-rooted sense of justice, and, in the eyes of Yves Courrière, based on his interviews of F.L.N. leaders, it provided the F.L.N. with one of its “principal psychological trump cards”. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 358 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The F.L.N. justified civilian bombing as morally equivalent to French air attack.; Arming the F.N.F. repeated the French error of arming the 1870 National Guard; The F.L.N. adopted total war against French civilians in direct retaliation. (+10 more)

Related

• The F.L.N. justified civilian massacre as reprisal for collective repression (similarity 0.94)
• Collective responsibility backfired by giving the F.L.N. a key propaganda weapon. (similarity 0.91)
• France’s collective responsibility doctrine mirrored the principle behind Nazi massacres. (similarity 0.91)
• The F.L.N. adopted total war against French civilians in direct retaliation. (similarity 0.90)
• The F.L.N. massacred 301 peasants at Mélouza and blamed the French paras (similarity 0.87)
• The F.L.N. adopted total war on civilians as its strategy (similarity 0.86)
• French retaliation massacres played directly into the F.L.N.’s strategy (similarity 0.86)
• Collective responsibility backfired by handing the F.L.N. a psychological advantage (similarity 0.86)
• The F.L.N. justified civilian bombing as morally equivalent to French air attack. (similarity 0.84)
• Collective responsibility led French units to execute innocent Arab farmhands (similarity 0.84)
• The F.L.N. moved its terrorism into metropolitan France in summer 1958 (similarity 0.84)
• F.L.N. attacks on French schools were targeted war against French culture, not random savagery (similarity 0.84)
• FLN gained most from French brutal strike-breaking methods. (similarity 0.83)
• FLN leaders justified civilian bombing as equivalent to French aerial bombardment. (similarity 0.83)
• F.L.N. terror backfired against France, not the F.L.N., abroad (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• The F.L.N. justified civilian massacre as reprisal for collective repression #expands (0.60) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 373
• French retaliation massacres played directly into the F.L.N.’s strategy #corroborates (0.55) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 521
• Collective responsibility backfired by handing the F.L.N. a psychological advantage #responds-to (0.40)
• Collective responsibility backfired by giving the F.L.N. a key propaganda weapon. #responds-to (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 358