Algeria: The Last Ordeal
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206201700201 |
| Published date | 01 June 1962 |
| Author | John C. Cairns |
| Date | 01 June 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Algeria:
The
Last
Ordeal
John
C.
Cairns*
N
some
ways
the last year
was
the
worst.
Tension
had
never
been
higher.
Disenchantment
in
France
at
least
had
never
been
greater.
The
mindless
cruelty
of
it
all
had never
been
more
absurd
and
savage.
This
last
year,
stretching
from
the
hopeful
spring
of
1961
to
the
cease-fire
of
March
18,
1962,
spanned
a
season
of
revolt,
shadow-boxing,
false
threats,
capitu-
lation
and
murderous
hysteria.
French
Algeria
died
badly.
Its
agony
was
marked
by
panic
and
brutality
as
ugly
as
the
record
of
European
imperialism
could
show.
In
the
spring
of
1962
the
unhappy
corpse
of
empire
still shuddered
and lashed
out
and
stained
itself
in
fratricide.
The
whole
episode
of
its
death,
measured
over
at
least
seven
and
a
half
years, constituted
per-
haps
the
most
pathetic
and
sordid
event
in
the
long
twilight
of
colonialism.
It
was
hard
to
see
that
anyone
of
importance
in
the
tangled
conflict
came
out
of
it
well.
Nobody
won
the
conflict,
nobody
dominated
it. It
had raged
on
almost
uncontrolled, des-
troying
men
and
institutions
and
principles
of
conduct.
No
one
could
win.
It
was simply
agreed
between
the
two
principal
parties
to
the
struggle
that
the
war
should
end.
The
myth
of
Algeria
as
an
integral
part
of
France
collapsed.
The
myth
of
an
Algerian
nation
was
left
in
the
ruins
of
empire
to
be
made
concrete.
The
story
of
the
last
year
was
the story
of
French
capitula-
tion,
delayed
by
military
revolt
and unsuccessful
policy
of
hard-
bargaining
which
disintegrated
finally
before
the
unyielding
atti-
tude
of
the
rebel
Moslem
6lite
backed
by
the
mass
of
Algerian
Moslems.
It
was
characteristic
of
the
devious
and
futile
policy
of
France
that
the
rebel
"Government's"
agreement,
March
17,
1961,
to
open peace
talks
should
have
been
cancelled
by
de
Gaulle's
foolish
attempt
to
weaken
the
Ferhat
Abbas
administra-
tion by
bringing
in
Hadj
Messali's
rival,
moderate
and
small,
*
Department
of
History,
University
of
Toronto.
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