Editing Organisation armée secrète (section)

== History ==
[[File:16.01.62 Manif anti OAS (1962) - 53Fi961.jpg|thumb|left|Demonstration against the OAS in January 1962]]

The OAS was created in response to the January 1961 [[French referendum on Algerian self-determination, 1961|referendum on self-determination for Algeria]]. It was founded in Spain, in January 1961, by former officers, [[Pierre Lagaillarde]] (who led the [[Algerian War#Week of barricades|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 Guérin-Sérac]], and former members of the [[French Foreign Legion]] from the [[First Indochina War]] (1946–1954). ''OAS-Métro'', the branch in [[metropolitan France]], was led by captain [[Pierre Sergent]]. These officers united earlier anti-FLN networks such as the ''Organisation 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.<ref name=evans306>Evans, M. ''Algeria: France's Undeclared War''. Oxford: OUP, p. 306</ref> 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 Guenassia, who began armed resistance after a series of FLN attacks on the Jewish quarter in Oran.<ref name=evans306/> Some Algerian OAS members conceived of the conflict in terms of the [[French Resistance]],<ref name=evans306/> and in contrast to later Gaullist depictions of the movement, it included a number of former Resistance members in addition to [[Vichy France|Vichy]] collaborators.

Resistance against Algerian independence commenced in January 1960, with further violence breaking out in 1961 during the General's Uprising. Daniele Ganser of the [[ETH Zurich|ETH]] Parallel History Project claims that [[Operation Gladio|Gladio]] [[stay-behind]] networks, directed by [[NATO]], were involved, but no definitive proof has been found.<ref name="ETH chronology">[http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/news/mediadesk/gladio.cfm Chronology from The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518154753/http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/news/mediadesk/gladio.cfm |date=18 May 2008 }}, [[ETH Zurich|ETH Zurich Institute]].</ref><ref>Daniele Ganser, ''[[Operation Gladio]]. Terrorism in Western Europe'', Franck Cass, London, 2005.</ref> Both of these insurrections were swiftly suppressed and many of the leaders who had created the OAS were imprisoned.

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, "French Algeria is dead" (''L’Algérie française est morte''). [[Roger Gavoury]], head of the French police in [[Algiers]], was assassinated at the direction of [[Roger Degueldre]], leader of the OAS [[Commando Delta]], with the actual killing done by [[Claude Piegts]] and [[Albert Dovecar]] on 31 May 1961 (Piegts and Dovecar were executed by a firing-squad on 7 June 1962; Degueldre on 6 July). The OAS became notorious for ''stroungas'', attacks using plastic explosives.

In October 1961 Pierre Lagaillarde, who had escaped to [[Francoist Spain]] following the 1960 barricades week, was arrested in Madrid, along with the Italian activist [[Guido Giannettini]].<ref>René Monzat, ''Enquêtes sur la droite extrême'', [[Le Monde]]-éditions, 1992, p. 91. Monzat quotes [[François Duprat]], ''L’Ascension du MSI'', [[Les Sept Couleurs|Edition les Sept Couleurs]], Paris, 1972</ref> [[Francisco Franco|Franco]] then exiled him to the [[Canary 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 the [[Ministry of Education (France)|National Education Ministry]], who directed the "Educative Social Centres" (''Centres sociaux éducatifs''), including [[Mouloud Feraoun]], an Algerian writer, etc.<ref name="LDH">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070223040138/http://www.ldh-toulon.net/spip.php?article609#nh1 ''26 mars 1962, la fusillade de la rue d’Isly à Alger''], ''[[Ligue des droits de l'homme]]'' (LDH, Human Rights League), article based on sources from Benjamin Stora, ''Histoire de la guerre d'Algérie'', ''La gangrène et l'oubli'' and Sylvie Thénault, ''Histoire de la guerre d'indépendance algérienne'' {{in lang|fr}}</ref> 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.<ref>Universalis, Encyclopaedia; Grands Articles, Les (28 October 2015). Algérie (Les Grands Articles d'Universalis): Géographie, économie, histoire et politique (French Edition) (Kindle Locations 1158–1159). [[Encyclopaedia Universalis]]. Kindle Edition. Quote: "En un an, d’avril 1961 à avril 1962, les attentats de l’O.A.S. font 2 000 morts et le double de blessés."</ref>

The OAS attempted several times to assassinate French president [[Charles 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]].<ref name="Passing of French Algeria">{{cite book |last=Gordon |first=David C. |title=The Passing of French Algeria |year=1966|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> 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 by [[Frederick Forsyth]], ''[[The Day of the Jackal]]'', and in the [[The Day of the Jackal (film)|1973 film of the same name]].

The OAS use of extreme violence created strong opposition from some ''[[pieds-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, the ''Mouvement 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|date=September 2014}}