The Foreign Service Journal, October 2006

Lessons from 50 Years Ago My Battle of Algiers Ted Morgan, Smithsonian Books, 2005, $24.95, hardcover, 284 pages. R EVIEWED BY D AVID T. J ONES Almost 50 years ago, the nexus between East and West; colonialism and liberation; and communism and NATO lay in Algeria, where the French struggled to suppress terrorism. The era and the struggle spawned serious history (Paul Henissart’s Wolves in the City ), muscular fiction (Jean Larteguy’s The Praetorians ), and memorable cinema (“The Battle of Algiers”). In the subsequent half- century, an almost endless line of struggles from Vietnam through the Persian Gulf War and the current conflict in Iraq, as well as various insurgencies around the globe, have left Algeria’s French legacy in the dusty memory of aging combatants. Fortunately, TedMorgan has revisited the topic, bringing a thought-provok- ing memoir into topical review. Morgan, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born Sanche de Gramont. Son of a French diplomat killed in World War II, he was educated at Yale. In 1969 he produced a clever, catty, insightful study ( The French ) that sliced and diced his native land and its citizens to the delight of Anglo- Saxons, as well as books on espionage and French history. As Ted Morgan (an anagram of “de Gramont”), he has written many books, including biogra- phies of Somerset Maugham, Win- ston Churchill and FDR, and a fine U.S. colonial-era history ( Wilderness at Dawn ). A previous memoir, On Becoming American , discussed his decision to become a U.S. citizen in the mid-1970s. My Battle of Algiers describes Morgan’s experiences as a young army officer who returned home in 1956 to perform his obligatory military ser- vice. Like many other French sol- diers, he was assigned to a yearlong tour in Algeria. There the French army suppressed the resistance forces through two brutal episodes of coun- terinsurgency, fighting first in the countryside and then within the capi- tal. They say that everyone is a hero in his own autobiography, but Morgan tries hard to gainsay that adage. He enjoys his landlady’s favors (and enjoys free accommodations during her husband’s absence); beats to death a suspect that he is questioning; and helps a buddy who has deserted the army to evade military police. As for the larger context, in wry, reflec- tive prose he unflinchingly examines conditions in post-World War II France and colonial Algeria — and leaves the reader the opportunity to extrapolate some conclusions from his experience. Perhaps the most disconcerting lesson Morgan offers is that torture works — not every time or with every individual, but frequently enough and rapidly enough for its use to be justi- fied. It is fair to say that torture was the principal means by which the ter- rorist networks in Algiers were identi- fied and destroyed. The human toll was gruesome, to be sure: of over 24,000 suspects transferred to military custody rather than the courts, more than 3,000 “disappeared” — that is, they were murdered during or follow- ing torture. Still, on the evidence Morgan presents here, critics of what- ever U.S. forces have or may have done in the five years since the 9/11 attacks to fight our enemies are arguing for humanitarian principles against practical realities. But perhaps the chief place to apply the lessons of Algeria is not in Iraq, but in the Middle East’s Occu- pied Territories (stemming from the 1967 Six Days War). The French experience in Algeria suggests that no matter the depth or historical value of a people’s claim on an area, the subju- gation of a hostile population requires full political support from the “home- land” and a willingness to pay whatev- er price is required to continue the subjugation. As Morgan recounts, France had held Algeria since 1830. The colony even elected deputies to the National Assembly; Algiers, with a population over 900,000 (two-thirds French) was the second-largest city in France, behind only Paris. But, unwilling to pay the price in blood and treasure required to vanquish a determined resistance movement, France cut its losses and departed after only a few years of fighting. From this optic, it appears as if Tel Aviv has made a com- parable decision regarding Gaza and the vast bulk of the West Bank. De Gramont/Morgan does not pronounce on current-day parallels in My Battle of Algiers , but such ques- tions nonetheless hang in the air. David T. Jones, a retired Senior Foreign Service officer, is a frequent contributor to the Journal . 84 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6 B O O K S They say that everyone is a hero in his own autobiography, but Morgan tries hard to gainsay that adage.