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The FLN (National Liberation Front) estimated in 1962 that nearly eight years of revolution had cost 300,000 dead from war-related causes. Algerian sources later put the figure at approximately 1.5 million dead, while French officials estimated it at 350,000. French military authorities listed their losses at nearly 18,000 dead (6,000 from noncombat-relatedcauses) and 65,000 wounded. European civilian casualties exceeded 10,000 (including 3,000 dead) in 42,000 recorded terrorist incidents. According to French figures, security forces killed 141,000 rebel combatants, and more than 12,000 Algerians died in internal FLNpurges during the war. An additional 5,000 died in the "café wars " in France between the FLN and rival Algerian groups. French sources also estimated that 70,000 Muslim civilians were killed, or abducted and presumed killed, by the FLN.1
-Library of Congress, Country Study of Algeria
ONE OF THE MOST internally divisive periods in recent French history occurred when France waged war (1954-1962) to retain sovereignty over French territory in Algeria. The French-Algerian war offers an unusually rich case study of an insurgency that contains valuable lessons in the dynamics of counter-insurgency and international conflicts arising from ideological, political, and cultural discontents.
Making comparisons between the French-Algerian war and the conflict in Iraq is tempting from a counterinsurgency (COIN) perspective, but one must remain cautious. Conducting a counterinsurgency campaign is not like cooking; lessons learned from one conflict do not automatically translate into recipes for resolving another. Many in the French military view the war in Algeria as a brilliant operational and tactical success story-and a great strategic and political failure, indeed, a debacle that had devastating short-term consequences for France and long-lasting adverse effects on the French military.
General Background and Context of the War
It is difficult to describe adequately the depth of feeling the French once had toward colonial Algeria. France's relationship with Algeria as a colony was unique. Situated just across the Mediterranean Sea from France, Algeria was the closest non-continental part of the French Empire. Communications and travel were much easier and much greater than with other colonial outposts. France and Algeria had greater economic interdependence, and some sectors of Algerian society identified themselves with France politically and culturally. Algeria was more than just a colony to the French. It was actual French...