Counterrevolutionary Warfare on Trial: Theory, Terrorism, and Treason at the End of Empire

This article reads the political thought of a collection of treasonous and treason-sympathizing French military officers who supported the cause of the OAS (Organisation de l’armée secrète), a terrorist organization that fought President Charles de Gaulle’s decision to leave Algeria in 1960. It draws upon a selection of the doctrine they wrote, that of guerre révolutionnaire or counterrevolutionary warfare; the novels that popularized their perspectives for broader audiences; and the transcripts from the trial of General Raoul Salan, the leader of the OAS. Based on these texts, it argues that counterrevolutionary warfare doctrine attempted to circumvent decolonization by articulating a form of violent nostalgia that continued colonial war without colonial conquest. In this way, counterrevolutionary warfare was a military doctrine, an ideological world view, and a theory of decolonization.