France: Orders & Honor

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Frenchmen learned last week just how close their army had come to open mutiny during the European insurrection in Algiers last January.

The revelation came from officers testifying in the treason trial of 20 Algerian insurrectionists led by Pierre Lagaillarde (who has himself fled to Spain and refuses to return). One by one, they recalled the moment when lines of police advanced on the Algiers barricades with unloaded rifles held aloft and were caught in a 20-minute crossfire from surrounding buildings. Two paratroop regiments were only 300 yds. away but refused to move until the firing was over and more than 150 police had fallen.

Free Advice. On the witness stand in Paris' Palais de Justice, the paratroop colonels made no apologies. Shaven-skulled Colonel Auguste Broizat, a veteran of Indo-China, said firmly that he not only "refused to fire on the crowd," but had ordered that his men stay where they were and "avoid all provocations." After the police massacre, Broizat told Algerian Commander in Chief General Maurice Challe bitterly: "Here is the result of our government's policy, and this is just the beginning." According to Broizat, Challe replied, "Don't tell me. I feel even more strongly about it than you do."

Another paratroop colonel calmly admitted that the police had begged his assistance, but he did nothing. A third, Colonel Henri Dufour, testified he had also told General Challe that he would not fire on the insurrectionists. When French Premier Michel Debre hurried to Algiers, Dufour advised him not to count on the army because "this is a political problem; it needs a political solution."

No Illusions. The former commander of the Algiers zone, Major General Germain Coste, was the one high-ranking officer apparently willing to do what he was told. Recalled Coste: "It was necessary to envisage the possibility of opening fire on the mob. 'Will you accept?' General Challe asked. One man said no. Challe asked me. I said yes." In bewilderment, Coste exclaimed to the military court: "Gentlemen, does a uniformed servant of the state have the right to discuss law and obedience to the law?" The testimony of the paratroop colonels, he said, "reveals an extraordinary state of affairs for an army. It shows that for some soldiers, an order is not an order but a basis for discussion."

The point at issue is one that plagues all armies: Should an officer obey orders that he believes violate his conscience or his honor? German generals were found guilty at Nurnberg and executed by the Allies because they did not place conscience above orders from Hitler. Soviet officers at Budapest were reportedly executed by the Red army when they did put conscience above orders and refused to shoot down Hungarian freedom fighters. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle's conscience drove him to disobey the orders of Marshal Pétain when he escaped to Britain and set up the Free French forces.