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The ‘War without a Name’, the French Army and the Algerians: Recovering Experiences, Images and Testimonies

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The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954–62

Abstract

Jules Roy, pied-noir writer and veteran of the Second World War and Indochina, could have been speaking of Algeria when he claimed that: ‘It was hardly worth going to war against the Nazis only to become the Nazis of Indochina.’2

They had the taste for liberty, the sense of justice and the instinct for generosity. They wanted to create a multiracial, free, fraternal and prosperous society, to set an example for a world divided between rich and poor peoples. One word symbolised their ambition: ‘integration’! Opposite under the striking red and green banner of Islam, the enemy preached racial hatred and religious fanaticism, the arbitrary terrorism of a one-party dictatorship… To win the hearts of the population, they turned themselves into medical orderlies, administrators, water irrigation project managers, overseers of the rural economy… To protect them, they also became policemen, judges and executioners.3

I recognised the lump in my throat, that impotent and furious disgust: it was what I used to feel on catching sight of a member of the SS. French army uniforms today caused me to shudder just as I did at the sight of swastikas. I observed those young boys smiling in their camouflage uniform… Yes, I was living in a city under occupation, and I loathed the occupying forces with more distress than I did those of the 1940s [because of all the links I had with them].1

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Notes

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  2. Martin Evans
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  3. J. F. V. Keiger
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK

    Martin S. Alexander (Professor of International Relations) (Professor of International Relations)

  2. University of Portsmouth, UK

    Martin Evans (Reader in Contemporary European History, Director) (Reader in Contemporary European History, Director)

  3. Centre for European Studies Research (CESR), UK

    Martin Evans (Reader in Contemporary European History, Director) (Reader in Contemporary European History, Director)

  4. University of Salford, UK

    J. F. V. Keiger (Professor of International History) (Professor of International History)

Copyright information

© 2002 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Alexander, M.S., Evans, M., Keiger, J.F.V. (2002). The ‘War without a Name’, the French Army and the Algerians: Recovering Experiences, Images and Testimonies. In: Alexander, M.S., Evans, M., Keiger, J.F.V. (eds) The Algerian War and the French Army, 1954–62. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230500952_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230500952_1

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-41638-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-50095-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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