Talk:Algerian War/Archive 1

Library of Congress
I agree this is a very extensive article with a lot of good information. However, like the person said before, the majority of the information was taken from the Algerian Country Studies page from Library of Congress. And although it is free for public use, Library of Congress asks in the FAQ's section that, "appropriate credit be given to the series." It's important to remember that a lot of time and effort went into gathering and researching the information presented on Library of Congress. Therefore, in order to properly acknowledge LOC, it's important to include quotes around the quoted passages.

Nogin001

An excellent article, at least from the point of view of someone whose knowledge of the subject is limited to having watched Pontecorvo's movie "The Battle of Algiers" 35 years ago. But one point: it draws extensively, which is to say quotes long passages more or less verbatim, from http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/algeria1954.htm. I don't know if this is a copyvio, since I don't know the ins and outs of copyrighting sites of that sort, but someone who does may want to address the issue. In addition, some persons mentioned in the text, such as Abbas, are not properly identified; other references, such as ALN, have to be guessed at. This is probably a side effect of borrowing. Italo Svevo

Much of it was copied from http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html, which is "is not copyrighted and thus is available for free and unrestricted use by researchers". All US Government sites are public domain unless otherwise stated. --Jiang 00:03, 3 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Is this accurate?: "The most notable manifestation of the new urban campaign was the Battle of Algiers, which began on September 30, 1956, when three women placed bombs at three sites including the downtown office of Air France." Is it not true that prior to these bombings, the FLN had been assasinating French policemen and the French retaliated by detonating a bomb in the Casbah (killing civilians along, along with their FLN targets). Also, I've heard that of the three bombs, the one at Air France failed to explode. True? 68.156.53.188 20:49, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

French Resistance, and french criminals
AtiN: Your second and third additions only say in misspelled, ungrammatical and prolix English what was already present in good English. The first addition, concerning the French Resistance, is unsourced original research denying validity to a peripheral comparison, which was however sourced, and is even more irrelevant to the article. As for targetting civilians I do not recall much about it in general at the moment - are you saying they did not target German civilians? (dubious, false imho) - but it is not controversial and well-known that after the war, there was a lot of score settling by the French resistance that got out of hand and killed innocent people  - another reason this does not belong in the article, in addition to being unsourced and not really relevant original research, it would take a lot of space to get right. Put it in the French Resistance article and debate it there. --John Z 05:54, 17 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks John for your help in engish. The FFI never target civilians, even german civilian. The only murder reported is the murder of a german officier in permission. He was not in duty so he sould have been considered as a civilian. About the "réglements de compte", murder, women insulted just after the liberation it's not due to what we should consider as "resistant". Theses crims are crims of "resistants of the last minutes". But who consider resistants of the last minutes as resistants ?
 * FLN was a terrorist organisation. It's a fact, not an accusation.
 * A encyclopedic article must notice a difference between criminals and resistants. Please do not make the confusion. AtiN 14:48, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Europeans?
In 1954-1962, most "Pieds noirs" were born in Algeria, for a majority their parents were born in Algeria and sometime their grand-parents too.

The governor of California is born in Europe... Who consider Arnold Schwarzenegger as an european ? AtiN 21:43, 17 August 2005 (UTC)


 * They were European citizens, whereas Algerian Muslims weren't.Palmiro | Talk 17:01, 20 August 2005 (UTC)


 * First at that time there was no european citizenship.
 * But I'm OK with "french citizen"
 * We can not accept "europeans". "Pieds noirs" were not europeans there were north africans.


 * Jacques Verges is not an historian, nether a journalist, an analyst... Is an advocat and has a clair tendency to represent some of the most infamous defendants. Compare french administration in Algeria with german occupation of France by nazi has a nice effect in a TV show as Verges love it.... But has nothing to do in an encyclopedic article.


 * I don't know why but my revert didn't save the end of the article. I'll try to fix it with an other computer. Sorry about that. AtiN 21:51, 20 August 2005 (UTC)


 * "French citizen" is actually what it says in the paragraph you were objecting to, so I don't see wy you reverted again. In any case, if you have one problem with a particular version, you should fix that rather than making a revert. On this basis, I've reverted back. Palmiro | Talk 15:04, 21 August 2005 (UTC)


 * You right I sould fix the problem rather than make a reversion. I was too busy. Pieds-noirs were not europeans. American people are not europeans even if most of them are europeans descendents. I sure you are able to understand my point dispite my very bad english. AtiN 15:40, 21 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Fair enough. Jacques Verges is gone. In English adjectives derived from proper nouns take a capital letter (majuscule) so Algerian is correct, and I changed 'flee' (actually the past tense is 'fled' back to 'left' because it seemed more neutral and less emotionally laden - the text implies that many of them left over a period of two years or so, which suggests that they weren't actually all fleeing. Palmiro | Talk 15:48, 21 August 2005 (UTC)


 * In English adjectives derived from proper nouns take a capital letter. Thank you, I'm learning. And "muslim" is it a proper noum ?
 * About "flee" or "left" an encyclopedic article must respect a neutral POV. That doesn't means a neutral vocabulary. To flee mean to be force to left because of a danger. People can flee during years and years... I don't see that "two years or so" as a argument against the use of "flee". Between 1933 and 1939 jews left or fled germany ? I think it's more correct to say "fled". AtiN 19:31, 21 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, Muslim (and other adjectives of religion, such as Jewish and Christian) take capitals. I'm not convinced by your argument about fleeing, but I don;t plan to have anything more to do with this article as it's too far from my area of knowledge. Palmiro | Talk 16:30, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again for your english teaching. I had a friend "pied noir", the son of a baker. He was born in Algeria, he's father was born in Algeria, all his familly was Algerian (most of them had ascendants from France). He was not a rich colon but a modest algerian French citizen. If you ask him "What is your country ?" He will answer "Algeria". I ask him why he never come back, even to visit. Too painfull he said. "You know it's too painfull for me to go back to my country and realise it's not my country anymore". He speaks fluently Arab. Not academic Arab but Algerian Arab. He had Muslim and non-Muslim friends. For him it did not make any difference.

I also had Algerian friends and they are able to understand that the offical version of the history teach in Algeria is far from the reality. Official history in Algeria teach that French in Algeria were like German in France during the second world war.

The reconciliation between France and Germany is done. But the reconciliation between Algeria and France is not already done. It will probably take more time. The time necessary to read together our common history.

Personnaly I would like that EU enlarge not only to Turky but also to the mediteraneans countries.

I think that French are closer to Algerian thant to Norvegian. I dream to the progressive transformation of EU to EMU (Euro-Mediteranean Union). United in the diversity.

Some people dream to a strong Arabic and/or Musulim union and in a choc of civilisation. Some people want a Christian UE. I don't.

i thought this ritcle was well written and it helped a lot with my school paper. I didnt like what that random person blabed about at the end. can you say anoying?

Thanks again for your talk and your help. AtiN 19:48, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Berbers?
What role did the Berbers play? Smmurphy(Talk) 22:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

video archives
I've added a link about official archive videos. It features censored material, interviews from both sides, official speeches, news archives etc. This is a great educational source indeed and could help the overview and understanding of this war. Type "guerre d'algérie" as search ("recherche") and you'll get hundreds of videos, you can search by years replacing "YYYY" ("AAAA") with the year, 1962. I've seen there is an English (and Chinese) version now but I don't think the video summaries are written in these languages. It could came later as the site just opened three months ago. The source is official and reliable as the National Audiovisual Institute (www.ina.fr). Hope it helps. Shame On You 14:23, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

marxist propaganda and picture manipulation
i have added a caption for the article's infobox picture and corrected the pictures summary: these French history events are confusing for our French historians who have materials, i wonder how foreigners can understand such complicated events with no background nor language understanding. Before it was the FLNC Corse picture, now these French barricade rioters confused with pro-FLN Muslims... Also having the OAS and France combatants in the same side is purely nonsense as the French government and OAS were deadly ennemies and absolutely not allies. Actually the FLN became France's ally against the OAS. This conflict was an independence war from 1954 until 1961 and became a civil war in 1962. Muslims were not living in European style urban areas but in villages, also they were not dressed with European suits but traditional clothes and the women wore Burqa, knowing this cultural facts you can be sure this picture shot in the center of Algiers cannot possibly features Muslims.

Speaking of cultural facts, historically the Burqa isn't a Algerian garment. The traditional women's garment is the Haik_(garment).


 * Propaganda picture falsely labeled by a marxist activist as "demonstration in favour of Algerian Independence in 1960" while it is the opposite and actually a scene of Franco-French civil war. Pictured protesters are not FLN Muslisms supporters but European-Algerians (not wearing Abaya but dressed the European way) supporting the French Algeria and rioting versus the French army's CRS & Gardes Mobiles. Footages of the pictured scene are featured in this video (check 13: 54)
 * Unsourced picture used as marxist propaganda and a manipulation to demonstrate a fictitious massive popular support to the FLN cause. The barricades was not a pro-Independence movement but in contrary a pro-French Algeria one involving not Muslims but Pieds-Noirs.
 * Picture taken from http://www.marxists.org/history/france/algerian-war/1960/manifesto-121.htm Shame On You 08:04, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

end of war
Historians disagree on the war's end according to the French army, Pieds-Noirs or Harkis POV. Some believe the war ended before the Evian Agreements and before the OAS entered the scene turning the French army and FLN as allies against this rebel faction. The current situation in France is no commemoration has been set for this war and there is no end of war celebration day. Further reading is requested. Shame On You 11:58, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Mitterand Quote Probably false
In Benjamin Stora's book La Gangrene et l'oubli (pg. 15 La Decouverte/Poche 1998) he quotes historien Charles-Andre Julien saying that the quote attributed to Mitterand "La seule negociation, c'est la guerre" ("the only possible negotiation is war" or whatever) is probably false. Julien couldn't find one witness to substantiate the quote. Also, the fact that the war was simply referred to as "les evenements" for decades in offical french discourse and that Mitterand himself is recorded as saying that they should avoid anything that could appear as a sort of state of war seems to confirm this. I think the quote, besides being quite probably fictitious, does misrepresent the dynamics of the wars beginning. Spetts 22:50, 25 April 2006 (UTC)Spetts


 * Corrected, nine months later. Late is better than never. Tazmaniacs 00:10, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Intro & overview
I assume one need not creates an "overview" subsection which repeats the introduction. Hence, I've removed the overview subsection, and place it here in case any information is forgotten Tazmaniacs 00:20, 18 January 2007 (UTC):


 * "The struggle was touched off by the FLN in 1954, shortly after the fall of the French Union at Dien Bien Phu and only two years before France gave up its control over its protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco. The war, which lasted until the March 18, 1962 Evian Accords, and the July 3, 1962 independence of Algeria, immediately followed the Indochina War waged against Ho Chi Minh. Although the war was mainly waged by the FLN, which had overshadowed more moderate parties such as Messali Hadj's Mouvement National Algérien (MNA, National Algerian Movement) or Ferhat Abbas's Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien (UDMA, Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto), the FLN and the MNA fought against each other in France and Algeria nearly for the duration of the conflict. The Algerian War was marked by the 1956 Suez crisis (France accused Nasser of supporting the FLN); Charles de Gaulle's return to power during the May 1958 crisis, when the French military opposed to Algerian independence threatened to launch Operation Resurrection, designed to overthrow the Republic, and the founding of the Fifth Republic; the April 1961 Generals' putsch in Algiers; and the scandal of the use of torture, systematized by the French army who set up most modern counter-insurgency techniques. Although most supported the war at its beginning, including Premier Pierre Mendès-France who had been elected on a program to put an end to the Indochina War, public hostility became stronger later on. Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jeanson network symbolized the opposition to the war, whether pacifist, anti-militarist or anti-colonialist."

RETHINKING THE COLD WAR AND DECOLONIZATION: THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE ALGERIAN WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
"U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked his National Security Council “whether such intervention would not mean war.” The council agreed that if communist regulars infiltrated Algeria, the United States would be bound by the North Atlantic Treaty to come to the aid of French President Charles de Gaulle and his beleaguered government. After six years of insurgency, Algeria appeared to be on the brink of becoming a Cold War battleground." looks like interesting :) haven't time to read it yet, maybe someone can have a look at it ans see if it contains relevant untold infos. Shame On You 01:02, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

"independantist"
"Independantist", which occurs several times in this article, is not a word in English. While the intended import of the word is generally clear enough, some editor with knowledge of the subject matter should substitute an appropriate word or phrase at each of its occurrences.MayerG 04:42, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
 * np, you can replace it by "communist" or "terrorist" :) Shame On You 01:04, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

"do you want mers-el-kebir & algiers to become soviet bases as soon as tomorrow?"
this line is a quote from general challe's appeal to the french army's french algeria corps challe putsh appeal april 22 1961 Shame On You 10:52, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

false statements
"most of the french were happy of de gaulles return" this is false! the vote was 329 for and 224 against, 3/5. the leftists (communist+socialist) were absolutely against, they feared that france turned into a fascist state, actually there were anti de gaulle protests in paris. the army corps in algeria, the gaullist in the metropole, the french algerian were for de gaulles return. until he didn't acted as expected, then a part of the army and some french algerian turned into the OAS and wanna kill him. Shame On You 06:28, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

So "most" looks correct then since it was greater than 50%. Facius 13:33, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Sources suggest possible bias
The sources/references list seems to be largely composed of articles from french newspapers. One the most quoted is the paper L'Humanité ("Humanity") which was formerly the daily newspaper of the French Communist Party (PCF), was founded in 1904 by Jean Jaurès, a leader of the SFIO socialist party it begs some questions about its neutrality as a principal source. It was only in 2001 that the paper became independent, but still maintains broad links with the PCF. It is even stated that the paper received subsidies from the USSR until 1990.

I am surprised at the small use of French government or French Army or ex-French Army sources. Is this a language issue with not enough translations available ? Facius 14:55, 23 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for making us aware of the history of L'Humanite :) ! Please note however, before crying out to POV (and calling for military sources!), that most of these sources involve historians, which are a bit more reliable sources than militaries (see WP:Primary sources, secondary sources, etc.) Note 2, for ex., is an interview of Benjamin Stora, one of the leading French historian concerning the Algerian War. Note 28 on General Bigeard (concerning the torture controversy) is accompanied by notes 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, etc. by Le Monde, which is the most mainstream French newspaper. L'Humanite references concerning Jean-Marie Le Pen are similarly accompanied by Le Monde references. Don't you think you're making a lot of fuss for little? Have you actually read these articles before pretending they are POV? Tazmaniacs 14:44, 24 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Ah Tazmaniacs good to see you back. Talking of reliable sources, do you have a better source for your comment on the use of Napalm than that it was depicted in a film made nearly 50 years after the events happened ?
 * Military sources ARE primary sources for these events, you may believe them biased and unreliable but that is your POV and its NPOV is what i am questioning. Historians (as you know from the french) weave a narrative around the facts they choose to use. They do not know the truth. To ask the organ of the communist party to comment independantly on a conflict where it was violently engaged on one side is at best unreliable in many aspects. It is the role of this encyclopaedia to write all Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing fairly and without bias all significant views (that have been published by reliable sources). This is non-negotiable and expected on all articles, and of all article editors. It is good that you are now putting in wider sources and many of them are now ones that can be accessed if not understood by readers of this wikipaedia. You silence in the French one is deafening. Facius 15:09, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

from the Viet Minh reeducation camps to the Arzew Psychological Warfare School
The "école de guerre psychologique d’Arzew" near Mostaganem, French Algeria was a psychological warfare academy ("une école de formation des cadres sur la guerre psychologique"). Most of the teachers were Indochina veterans who had experienced the Viet Minh reeducation camps from which 3/4 of the French Union POWs died or disappeared (especially the south vietnamese). These veterans experienced the political commissioners psychological work. A famous commissioner working for the Viet Minh and torturing the French was the French communist party militant fr:Georges Boudarel known for the Boudarel Affair. Paris By Night 16:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Is this school related in some way to the "Jean d'Arc" school under Bigeard ? Facius 15:16, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Intro & Suez Crisis
Thanks a lot for the recent changes which have corrected factual mistakes concerning dates - these need close reading to spot! I just have a remark concerning the removal of the Suez crisis from the intro : isn't it suitable for the intro to include it, as it is an important historical event, on an international scale, which was related, in some way, to the Algerian War? The intro does needs reworking (as the article in general) but unless someone argues the Suez crisis was really peripherical to the Algerian War, I do think it should be included somewhere. Concerning the Library of Congress issue, the best would be to re-word and use other source, I think. In any cases, it is best to use WP:Footnotes for the article, but that is a little detail that we will fix later. Cheers! Tazmaniacs

All of History is linked and the causes of most events are found in other events. Link to the Suez Crisis but dont duplicate. State what its impacts were on the Algerian war and move on. Facius 15:27, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Problems in references
talking about setif massacre "during which the French army killed between 20,000 and 45,000 Algerians," if you go and check the wkipedia link given, you 'll find that the number fluctuate between "1,020 (the official French figure given in the Tubert Report shortly after the massacre) and 45,000 people (as claimed by Radio Cairo at the time). Alistair Horne notes that 6,000 was the figure finally settled on by moderate historians but acknowledges that this remains only an estimate."

And it was not the fact of the sole French army, but also by police and "pied noir" militia shooting randomly at muslims and lynching prisoneers. Hence the statment "during which the French army killed between 20,000 and 45,000 Algerians" is not neutral. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.187.242.142 (talk) 13:55, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes I think this situation seems to be widespread for this conflict. Some, such as myself have read the memoirs of the soldiers who commanded during this conflict. Others. like Tazmaniacs, seem to have sources that are often based on, or directly, primary sources from the Communist/FLN side. The 'facts' do not match. I think therefore we must represent both views as fairly as possible even though they may seem incompatible. Some others feel that a particular view must prevail and undo my additions as well as saying that my primary sources are biased. I believe that he is right that they are biased but unfortunately it is almost certain, in my mind. that his are as well and a common ground is difficult to establish. If only it were easy to spot moderate historians amongst all their partisan colleagues. Facius 16:08, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

End of French colonial empire?
The result section in the infobox include the statement that this was the end of the French colonial empire, I think that is a questionably ascertain. If one is to look formally than the French colonial empire ended 1946, being replaced with the French Union and French Algeria wasn’t even considered a colony but a part of France. If one defines the French colonial empire as the possessions of France outside metropolitan France than the empire still existed with Overseas departments and territories like Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and others. So in neither sense is the statement really true and should therefore be removed. Carl Logan 14:01, 30 October 2007 (UTC)