| Secret Army Organisation | |
|---|---|
| Organisation armée secrète(in French) | |
 Emblem of the movement | |
| Leader | Raoul Salan,Pierre Lagaillarde,Edmond Jouhaud,Yves Godard,Jean-Jacques Susini, Jean-Claude Perez |
| Dates of operation | 11 February 1961 (1961-02-11) – 1962 (1962) |
| Motives | Opposition to Algerian independence from France |
| Active regions |  France Spain Portugal |
| Ideology | French colonialism French nationalism Anti-Arabism Anti-communism[1] Anti-capitalism[1] Neo-fascism[1] Fascist corporatism[1] Anti-Gaullism |
| Political position | Far-right[1] |
| Notable attacks | Algiers putsch of 1961 Battle of Bab El Oued Attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle |
| Status | Inactive |
| Size | 3,000 members |
| Flag |  |
TheOrganisation armée secrète (OAS, "Secret Army Organisation") was afar-right[2][3][4] dissident Frenchparamilitary organisation during theAlgerian War, founded in 1961 byRaoul Salan,Pierre Lagaillarde andJean-Jacques Susini. The terrorist movement was particularly active in the final phase of the Algerian War and wanted to preventAlgeria's independence fromFrench colonial rule by all means. The OAS carried out bombings, assassinations, and acts of torture that resulted in over 2,000 deaths.[2][5] Its motto wasL’Algérie est française et le restera ("Algeria is French and so will remain").
The OAS was formed from existing networks, calling themselves "counter-terrorists", "self-defence groups", or "resistance", which had carried out attacks on the AlgerianNational Liberation Front (FLN) and their perceived supporters since early in the war. It was officially formed inFrancoist Spain, in Madrid in January 1961, as a response by some French politicians and French military officers to the8 January 1961 referendum on self-determination concerning Algeria, which had been organised byPresident de Gaulle.
By acts of bombings and targeted assassinations in both metropolitan France and French Algerian territories, which are estimated to have resulted in 2,000 deaths between April 1961 and April 1962, the OAS attempted to prevent Algerian independence. This campaign culminated in a wave of attacks that followed the March 1962Évian Accords, which granted independence to Algeria and marked the beginning of the exodus of thepieds-noirs (ethnic Europeans born in Algeria), and inJean Bastien-Thiry's1962 assassination attempt against president de Gaulle in the Paris suburb ofLe Petit-Clamart. Theexistentialist philosopherJean-Paul Sartre, who supported the FLN was a notable target of their actions.
The OAS still has admirers in French nationalist movements. In July 2006, some OAS sympathisers attempted to relight the flame of theTomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate theOran massacre on 5 July 1962.[6]
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The OAS was created in response to the January 1961referendum on self-determination for Algeria. It was founded in Spain, in January 1961, by former officers,Pierre Lagaillarde (who led the1960 Siege of Algiers), GeneralRaoul Salan (who took part in the 1961Algiers putsch or "Generals' Uprising") andJean-Jacques Susini, along with other members of theFrench Army, includingYves Guérin-Sérac, and former members of theFrench Foreign Legion from theFirst Indochina War (1946–1954).OAS-Métro, the branch inmetropolitan France, was led by captainPierre Sergent. These officers united earlier anti-FLN networks such as theOrganisation de Résistance de L'Algérie Française. While the movement had a broadly anticommunist and authoritarian base, in common with the political outlook of many colonists, it also included many ex-communists and a number of members who saw its struggle in terms of defending fraternal bonds between Algerians and the colonists against the FLN.[7] In France the OAS mainly recruited amongst overtly fascist political groups. In Algeria its makeup was more politically diverse, and included a group of Algerian Jews, led by Jean Ghenassia.[a][7] Some Algerian OAS members conceived of the conflict in terms of theFrench Resistance,[7] and in contrast to later Gaullist depictions of the movement, it included a number of former Resistance members in addition toVichy collaborators.
Resistance against Algerian independence commenced in January 1960, with further violence breaking out in 1961 during the General's Uprising.Daniele Ganser of theETH Parallel History Project claims thatGladiostay-behind networks, directed byNATO, were involved, but no definitive proof has been found.[9][10] Both of these insurrections were swiftly suppressed and many of the leaders who had created the OAS were imprisoned.
By acts ofsabotage andassassination in both metropolitan France and French Algerian territories, the OAS attempted to prevent Algerian independence. The first victim was Pierre Popie, attorney and president of thePeople's Republican Movement (Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP), who stated on TV, "French Algeria is dead" (L’Algérie française est morte).Roger Gavoury, head of the French police inAlgiers, was assassinated at the direction ofRoger Degueldre, leader of the OASCommando Delta, with the actual killing done byClaude Piegts andAlbert Dovecar on 31 May 1961. The OAS became notorious forstroungas, attacks using plastic explosives.
In October 1961 Pierre Lagaillarde, who had escaped toFrancoist Spain following the 1960 barricades week, was arrested in Madrid, along with the Italian activistGuido Giannettini.[11]Franco then exiled him to theCanary Islands.
The Delta commandos engaged in indiscriminate killing sprees, on 17 March 1962; against cleaning-ladies on 5 May; on 15 March 1962 against six inspectors of theNational Education Ministry, who directed the "Educative Social Centres" (Centres sociaux éducatifs), includingMouloud Feraoun, an Algerian writer, etc.[12] It is estimated that the assassinations carried out by the OAS between April 1961 and April 1962 left 2,000 people dead and twice as many wounded.[13]
The OAS attempted several times to assassinate French presidentCharles de Gaulle. The most prominent attempt was a 22 August 1962 ambush at Petit-Clamart, a Paris suburb, planned by a military engineer who was not an OAS member,Jean Bastien-Thiry.[14] Bastien-Thiry was executed in March 1963 after de Gaulle refused to grant him amnesty. A fictionalised version of this attack was recreated in the 1971 book byFrederick Forsyth,The Day of the Jackal, and in the1973 film of the same name.
The OAS use of extreme violence created strong opposition from somepieds-noirs and in mainland France. As a result, the OAS eventually found itself in violent clandestine conflict with not only the FLN but also French secret services and with a Gaullist paramilitary, theMouvement pour la Communauté (the MPC). Originally a political movement in Algiers, the MPC eventually became a paramilitary force in response to OAS violence. The group obtained valuable information which was routinely passed on to the French secret services, but was eventually destroyed by OAS assassinations.[citation needed]
The main hope of the OAS was to prove that the FLN was secretly restarting military action after a ceasefire was agreed in theEvian agreements of 19 March 1962 and the referendum of June 1962, so during these three months, the OAS unleashed a new terrorist campaign to force the FLN to abandon the ceasefire. Over 100 bombs a day were detonated by the OAS in March in pursuit of this goal. OAS operatives set off an average of 120 bombs per day in March, with targets including hospitals and schools. Dozens of Arab residents were killed at Place du Gouvernement when 24 mortar rounds were fired from the European stronghold ofBab el-Oued.[15] On 21 March, the OAS issued aflyer where they proclaimed that the French military had become an "occupation force."[12] It organizedcar bombings: 25 killed in Oran on 28 February 1962 and 62 killed in Algiers on 2 May, among others.[12] On 22 March, they took control of Bab el-Oued and attacked French soldiers, killing six of them. The French military then surrounded them and stormed the neighbourhood. The battle killed 15 French soldiers and 20 OAS members, and injured 150 more.[12] On 26 March, the leaders of the OAS proclaimed ageneral strike in Algiers and called for the European settlers to come to Bab el-Oued in order to break the blockade by military forces loyal to de Gaulle and theRepublic. A detachment oftirailleurs (Muslim troops in the French Army) fired on the demonstrators, killing 54, injuring 140, and traumatising the settlers' population in what is known as the "gunfight of the Rue d'Isly".[12] In coincidence with the uprising of Bab-el Oued, 200 OASmaquis marched from Algiers to Ouarsenis, a mountainous region between Oran and Algiers. They tried to overrun two French military outposts and gain support for local Muslim tribes loyal to France, but instead they were harassed and eventually defeated byLegion units led by Colonel Albert Brothier after several days of fighting.[16] Some clashes between the French army and the OAS involving grenades and mortar fire took place at Oran as late as 10 April.[17] At least one Lieutenant and one Second-Lieutenant were killed by the OAS during the fighting.[18]
In April 1962, the OAS leader,Raoul Salan was captured. Despite the OAS bombing campaign, the FLN remained resolute in its agreement to the ceasefire; further, on 17 June 1962, the OAS also began a ceasefire. The Algerian authority officially guaranteed the security of the remaining Europeans, but in early July 1962 theOran Massacre occurred; hundreds of armed people came down to European areas of the city, attacking European civilians. The violence lasted several hours, including lynching and acts of torture in public places in all areas ofOran by civilians supported by theALN—the armed wing of the FLN, at the time evolving into theAlgerian Army.[19]
By 1963, the main OAS operatives were either dead, in exile, or in prison.Claude Piegts andAlbert Dovecar were executed byfiring squad on 7 June 1962, andRoger Degueldre on 6 July 1962.Jean Bastien-Thiry, who had attempted the Petit-Clamart assassination on de Gaulle, but was not formally a member of the OAS, was also executed, on 11 March 1963. With the arrest of Gilles Buscia in 1965, the organisation effectively ceased to exist.[20] The jailed OAS members were amnestied by De Gaulle under a July 1968 act. Putschist generals still alive in November 1982 were reintegrated into the Army by another amnesty law: Raoul Salan,Edmond Jouhaud, and six other generals benefited from this law.
Within France, the anti-ArabCharles Martel Group, active in the 1970s and 1980s, was formed by OAS veterans.[21] One of the perpetrators of the 1970Besançon courthouse attack was a former OAS member. In November 2016, an extreme right-wing terrorist cell calling itself theOrganisation d’armées sociales (OAS) emerged in France.[22] The acronym was a nod to the original Organisation Armée Secrète. Inspired byAnders Behring Breivik, the group planned attacks onkebab shops, mosques, drug dealers and politicians, but was dismantled by French authorities in before it was able to accomplish any attacks.[23][24]
Many OAS members later took part in variousanti-communist struggles around the world. Following the disbandment of the organisation, and the execution of several of its members, the OASchaplain,Georges Grasset, organised the flight of OAS members, from a route going from Paris toFrancoist Spain and finally to Argentina.[25][26] Grasset arrived in 1962 in Buenos Aires to take charge of the Argentine branch of theCité Catholique, anintegral Catholic group formed byJean Ousset, the personal secretary ofCharles Maurras, as an offshoot of the monarchistAction Française. This anti-communist religious organisation was formed of many Algerian war veterans and individuals close to the OAS.Charles Lacheroy andColonel Trinquier, who theorised the systemic use oftorture incounter-insurgency doctrine inModern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency (1961), were members, along with ColonelJean Gardes, who had first theorised counter-insurgency tactics during theIndochina War (1947–1954). Gardes arrived in Argentina in 1963, a year after the end of the Algerian War. There, he delivered counterinsurgency courses at theHigher School of Mechanics of the Navy (ESMA), which became infamous during the "Dirty War" in the 1970s for being used as aninternment and torture center. Soon after Gardes metFederico Lucas Roussillon, an Argentine naval lieutenant commander, thecadets at the ESMA were shown the filmThe Battle of Algiers (1966) by Italian directorGillo Pontecorvo, during which the fictional Lieutenant-Colonel Mathieu and his paratroops make systematic use oftorture, the block warden system, anddeath flights.[25][26]
The Argentine admiralLuis María Mendía testified in January 2007 that aFrench intelligence agent,Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the "disappearance" of the two French nuns,Léonie Duquet andAlice Domon. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction, but did admit being a former OAS member who escaped to Argentina after the Evian agreements.[27][28]
The memory and mythologization of the OAS remain influential on the European far right to this day, contributing to the shaping of a radical form of Westernism, conceived as the right to the global supremacy of the Western white man over other peoples. During its activity, the OAS brought about an ideological shift within the French far right, transitioning from an extreme nationalism to a form of Westernism that identified the United States as the principal defender of the West against communism, decolonization, and Arab nationalisms. This perspective continues to influence the European far right to this day[29]
The OAS is referenced inIan Fleming's 1963 novelOn Her Majesty's Secret Service.James Bond's future father-in-law Marc-Ange, the head of a Corsican crime faction known as Union Corse, refers to the OAS in chapter 24, due to the OAS having a French military helicopter in their possession. Because of the OAS indebtedness to Marc-Ange and the Union Corse, the helicopter is loaned to theMI-6 – Marc-Ange/Union Corse coalition endeavoring to thwartErnst Stavro Blofeld's plot to unleash biological warfare in the UK's agricultural industry.
The OAS featured prominently inJack Higgins' 1964 novelWrath of the Lion, in which the organization fictionally manages to suborn the crew of a French Navy submarine and use it for missions of revenge.
Alain Cavalier's 1964 filmL'Insoumis starsAlain Delon as a deserter from the French Foreign Legion who joins the OAS on a kidnapping mission. Cavalier had already addressed the issue in the 1962 filmLe Combat dans l'île, starringRomy Schneider andJean-Louis Trintignant. Despite not being named its acronym, the movie is set in the context of the campaign of bombings and assassinations by the OAS.
The OAS features prominently in the 1971 novelThe Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, and itsfilm adaptation. The story deals primarily with a fictional assassination plot againstCharles de Gaulle, where the organisation hires a British contract killer (the Jackal) to kill de Gaulle. Bastien-Thiry and the Petit-Clamart plot figure prominently in the early sections of the story.
The OAS is referenced in theOliver Stone filmJFK, as suspected conspiratorClay Shaw (played byTommy Lee Jones) is alleged to have business connections with them.
The secret army was a three-part organisation, each segment having its own action commando squads.[30]
| Section (Divisions) | Role | Director | Squads |
|---|---|---|---|
| ODM Organisation-Des-Masses Mass Organisation | OAS recruitment | Colonel Jean Gardes Michel Leroy | none |
| APP Action-Psychologique-Propagande Psychological Warfare & Propaganda | OAS propaganda | Jean-Jacques Susini | -Commandos Z (Z forJean-Marcel Zagamé, founder) |
| ORO Organisation-Renseignement-Opération Organisation, Intelligence & Planning -BCRIntelligence Central Bureau -BAOOperational Action Bureau | OAS field ops planning | Jean-Claude Perez Jean Lalanne (BCR) Roger Degueldre (BAO) Albert Dovecar (Delta 1) | -Commandos Delta (D for Roger Degueldre, founder) Delta 1 Delta 2 Delta 3 |
Short living dissident group claiming the organisation's direction.
In Paris the OAS-métro organization resisted the centralizing tendencies of both Madrid and Algiers headquarters. Recognizing quite sensibly that the appeal of Algérie française was now limited in France, the metropolitan organization adopted anti-Communism as a substitute and initially drew substantial support from the far Right, including a number of former militants from the Poujadist movement. The OAS appeared fascist and corporatist, posting as an opponent of both capitalism and Marxism.
Media related toOrganisation armée secrète (OAS) at Wikimedia Commons
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