Organisation armée secrète

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The Organisation armée secrète (OAS, lit. "Secret Armed Organization") was a short-lived French nationalist political-military underground organization formed in January 1961 during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), which used violence in an attempt to keep French control of the départements in Algeria and to prevent Algeria's independence. After the March 1962 Evian Accords, which granted independence to Algeria and marked the beginning of the exodus of the pieds-noirs (European settlers), the OAS attempted to prevent the on-going political process by a campaign of assassinations and bombings, which culminated with Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry's August 22, 1962 assassination attempt against president Charles de Gaulle in the Paris suburb of Le Petit-Clamart. The OAS's motto was "Algeria is French and will remain as such" (L’Algérie est française et le restera).

1 History
2 Operations
3 Failure
4 Organization
5 Notes
6 Further reading
7 See also

[edit] History

The OAS was created in response to a referendum on self-determination for Algeria. It was founded in Spain, on 3 December 1960, by former officers, Pierre Lagaillarde (who led the 1960 Siege of Algiers), General Raoul Salan (who took part in the 1961 Algiers putsch or "Generals' Uprising") and Jean-Jacques Susini, along with other members of the French Army, including Yves Guerin Serac, and former members of the French Foreign Legion from the First Indochina War (1946-54). OAS-Métro, the branch in metropolitan France, was led by captain Pierre Sergent.

There was resistance against Algerian independence in January 1960 by the settlers and Pieds-Noirs who again took up arms in April 1961, during the Generals' Uprising, with some of the Algerian Jews siding with the OAS after synagogues were attacked by the National Liberation Front (Front de libération nationale, FLN) in Algeria. Daniele Ganser of the ETH Parallel History Project claims that Gladio stay-behind networks, directed by NATO, were involved, but no definitive proof has been found.^[1] ^[2] Both of these insurrections were swiftly suppressed and many of the leaders who had created the OAS were imprisoned.

[edit] Operations

By acts of sabotage and assassination 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 the People's Republican Movement (Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP), who stated on TV that "French Algeria [was] dead" (L’Algérie française est morte). Roger Gavoury, head of the French police in Algiers, was assassinated by Roger Degueldre, leader of the OAS Delta Commando, and Albert Dovecar on May 31, 1961 (both Degueldre and Dovecar were executed by a firing-squad on June 7, 1962); in March 1962, Mouloud Feraoun, an Algerian writer, was killed by the same Delta commando, etc.

The OAS attempted several times to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle. The most prominent attempt was a 1962 ambush at Petit-Clamart, a Paris suburb, planned by a military engineer who was not an OAS member, Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry. Bastien-Thiry was executed in March 1963 after de Gaulle refused to grant him amnesty. A fictionalized version of this attack was recreated in the 1973 film The Day of the Jackal.

[edit] Failure

The main hope of the OAS was to prove that the FLN was secretly restarting military action after a ceasefire was agreed in the Evian Accords of March and the referendum of June 1962; over 100 bombs a day were detonated by the OAS in March in pursuit of this end. In April 1962 the OAS leader, Raoul Salan was captured. Along with other OAS members, he would be defended by Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, who then presented himself as a far right candidate for the 1965 presidential election. Despite the OAS bombing campaign, the FLN remained resolute in its agreement to the ceasefire and on June 17, 1962 the OAS also began a ceasefire. The Algerian authority guaranteed the security of the remaining Europeans, but in early July 1962, remaining Pieds-Noirs witnesses reported machine-gunning of public places in all areas of Oran by the ALN—the armed wing of the FLN, at the time evolving into the Algerian Army—and that people had gone missing.^[3].

The OAS was effectively eliminated by 1963. Roger Degueldre, Claude Piegts and Albert Dovecar were executed by firing squad on June 7, 1962. Bastien-Thiry, who had attempted the Petit-Clamart assassination on de Gaulle, but was not formally a member of the OAS, was also executed. All others penal sentences were amnestied by 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 benefitted from this law.

[edit] Organization

[edit] Chain of command

The secret army was a three-part organization, each segment having its own action commando squads ^[4].

Section (Divisions)	Role	Director	Squads
ODM Organisation-Des-Masses Mass Organization	OAS recruitment	Colonel Jean Gardes Michel Leroy	none
APP Action-Psychologique-Propagande Psychological Warfare & Propaganda	OAS propaganda	Jean-Jacques Susini	-Commandos Z (Z for Jean-Marcel Zagamé, founder)
ORO Organisation-Renseignement-Opération Organization, Intelligence & Planning -BCR Intelligence Central Bureau -BAO Operational Action Bureau	OAS field ops planning	Jean-Claude Perez Jean Lalanne (BCR) Roger Degueldre (BAO) Albert Dovecar (D1)	-Commandos Delta (D for Roger Degueldre, founder) Delta 1 Delta 2 Delta 3

[edit] Commanding officers

General Raoul Salan

aka Soleil ("Sun" surname for Louis XIV of France)

Chief of Staff

General Paul Gardy

Chief of Staff

Colonel Godard

Chief Aide

Doctor Jean-Claude Perez

ORO Director

Captain Jean-Marie Curutchet

ORO Director, replacing Dr. Perez on January 1st 1962

Colonel Jean Gardes

ODM Director

Jean-Jacques Susini

APP Director

[edit] French Algerian branch

[edit] Oranie district

General Edmond Jouhaud

Commander Guillaume

aide

Charles Micheletti

civilian

Colonel Dufour

replacing Gen. Jouhaud

General Gardy

Capitaine Pierre Sergent