The full truth of the Algerian war may now be permanently unknowable to anyone

Evidence

Perhaps the best of much advice I received in the preparation of this book came from another of Algeria’s top ambassadors abroad. “Be absolutely honest,” he said, “and admit it if you have only seen part of the picture.” For the very real difficulties outlined above, I cannot claim to have seen anything like the “whole picture”; but it may be open to doubt whether anyone—French, Algerian or outsider—could do so at this moment. Possibly now no one ever will. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 17

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the Arab ‘page is turned’ fatalism to argue that the war’s history is structurally unwritable, not just unrecorded. — connects to: De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle.; Algerian war sources even disagree over key meeting dates; French official archives still held Algeria war secrets long after the conflict (+3 more)

Related

• Algerian war sources even disagree over key meeting dates (similarity 0.90)
• The Algerian War proved too recent for any definitive historical account (similarity 0.90)
• French official archives still held Algeria war secrets long after the conflict (similarity 0.89)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain irreducibly ambiguous even to his closest associates. (similarity 0.83)
• Algeria’s ingrained secretiveness and post-independence factionalism still obscure the revolution’s history (similarity 0.83)
• De Gaulle’s true intentions on Algeria remain a fundamentally contested riddle. (similarity 0.82)
• De Gaulle’s allies saw Algeria as subordinate to the French state’s crisis (similarity 0.82)
• Algeria descended into a secret civil war parallel to the main front (similarity 0.81)
• The Algerian war was simultaneously a war of peace and one of extreme savagery (similarity 0.81)
• French colonial war archives remained sealed while memories and witnesses faded. (similarity 0.81)
• A lingering Algerian hatred of French rule simmers until it erupts into war (similarity 0.80)
• Rapidly shifting loyalties in wartime France weakened Algerian trust in any authority (similarity 0.80)
• Boumedienne remained almost entirely unknown despite becoming Algeria’s president (similarity 0.80)
• Algeria was only one element of de Gaulle’s larger ambitions. (similarity 0.80)
• The Battle of Algiers marked the end of any possibility of negotiated settlement (similarity 0.79)