The Franco-Algerian War was indeed such a disaster. The deGaulle-Ben Bella "solution" created a failed Algerian nation-state at the cost of hundred-thousands of lives and the violent erthnic cleansing undergone by Algeria's whole european minority. Yet at the very outset a complete solution was at hand and proposed by no less a figure th…
The Franco-Algerian War was indeed such a disaster. The deGaulle-Ben Bella "solution" created a failed Algerian nation-state at the cost of hundred-thousands of lives and the violent erthnic cleansing undergone by Algeria's whole european minority. Yet at the very outset a complete solution was at hand and proposed by no less a figure than Jacques Soustelle--complete integration of Algeria into the French Republic with full citizenship and equal rights for all Al;gerians. But it was immediately buried by the entire French political elite and not supported by any Algerian political faction. Instead we got FLN terrorism and Mitterand's "La Seule Negotiation C'est La Guerre." Forty years after the FLN imposed its dictatorships Jacques Chirac asked an square massed full of Algerian Youth what France could do for them. The reply was a deafening chorus "Des Visas! Des Visas!"
The Franco-Algerian War was indeed such a disaster. The deGaulle-Ben Bella "solution" created a failed Algerian nation-state at the cost of hundred-thousands of lives and the violent erthnic cleansing undergone by Algeria's whole european minority. Yet at the very outset a complete solution was at hand and proposed by no less a figure than Jacques Soustelle--complete integration of Algeria into the French Republic with full citizenship and equal rights for all Al;gerians. But it was immediately buried by the entire French political elite and not supported by any Algerian political faction. Instead we got FLN terrorism and Mitterand's "La Seule Negotiation C'est La Guerre." Forty years after the FLN imposed its dictatorships Jacques Chirac asked an square massed full of Algerian Youth what France could do for them. The reply was a deafening chorus "Des Visas! Des Visas!"