Torture won the Battle of Algiers but lost the war for France

Evidence

For the rest of the modern world (and not least Southern Africa), the French experience in the Algerian War — a prototype of its kind — continued to offer its compelling lessons, most of them painful, for anyone prepared to heed them. There was the failure of a materially mighty Western power to combat a civil insurrection equipped with little more than ideology, without resort to the means one condemns in one’s enemy; in Algeria, the instrument of torture, as well as being fundamentally wicked in itself, was proved to be a boomerang weapon. There was the failure of the West to comprehend Third World aspirations; and the failure of the moderates everywhere to prevail against the extremist minority on either side; the Gironde is sent packing by the Montagne. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1659 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Torture’s contested truth made it a lasting canker for France; Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war; Torture was effective in winning the short-term battle of Algiers — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 608 (+17 more)

Related

• Torture was the chief factor in France’s defeat. (similarity 0.95)
• Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war (similarity 0.94)
• Torture destroyed the Muslim third force and turned French opinion against the war (similarity 0.94)
• The Battle of Algiers exposed torture as a lasting poison for France (similarity 0.93)
• Torture was effective in winning the short-term battle of Algiers (similarity 0.92)
• Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it (similarity 0.91)
• Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat (similarity 0.91)
• Torture’s Nazi echoes caused France’s defeat despite its military supremacy (similarity 0.91)
• Torture in Algeria left a lingering poison in the French system (similarity 0.91)
• Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. (similarity 0.91)
• Torture’s contested truth made it a lasting canker for France (similarity 0.90)
• The Battle of Algiers marked the end of any possibility of negotiated settlement (similarity 0.88)
• Soummam’s military doctrine produced the F.L.N.’s catastrophic Battle of Algiers (similarity 0.88)
• Perpetrators of torture carried its moral damage home to France in person (similarity 0.87)
• Torture became institutionalized in the French army during the Battle of Algiers (similarity 0.87)

Broader Connections

• Torture boomeranged against France in the Algerian war #corroborates (0.90)
• Torture backfired as a boomerang weapon in the Algerian war. #corroborates (0.85) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 1659
• Military victory in the Battle of Algiers ultimately aided F.L.N. long-term goals. #corroborates (0.85)
• The Battle of Algiers exposed torture as a lasting poison for France #expands (0.80) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 580
• Winning militarily while losing politically doomed the French army in Algeria #corroborates (0.80)
• Torture became institutionalized in the French army during the Battle of Algiers #expands (0.70) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 592
• Torture more than any single factor caused France’s Algerian defeat #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 51
• Torture in Algeria threatened France with state self-destruction #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 734
• The Battle of Algiers marked the end of any possibility of negotiated settlement #expands (0.50) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 679
• Torture’s Nazi echoes caused France’s defeat despite its military supremacy #qualifies (0.40)
• French governors repeatedly and publicly prohibited torture in Algeria despite its prevalence #complicates (0.40) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581
• French soldiers who saw Belsen recognized the same moral degradation in Algeria’s torture #complicates (0.30) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 729
• Soummam’s military doctrine produced the F.L.N.’s catastrophic Battle of Algiers #complicates (0.30) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 452