The influence of French Colonialism in the National Security Doctrine

Abstract

The city of Algiers became known as the Mecca of revolutionaries because it was
an intellectual ecosystem where intellectual networks circulated revolutionary ideas of
national liberation and anti-fascism. In this article, I analyze another phenomenon of
circulation of ideas related to the Algerian Revolution: the influence of French doctrine of
modern warfare on the doctrine of national security applied in the South American
dictatorships. What is the influence of the French doctrine of modern warfare, forged by
French colonialism, on the conception of the National Security Doctrine of the civil-military
dictatorships in South America? How was the process of circulation of ideas that enabled this influence? Through autobiographical books and interviews, I have access to a murky
world where men of shadows circulated as military attaches, such as Frenchman Paul
Aussaresses who, from 1961, gave courses at Fort Bragg, Fort Benning (USA) and was a
military attaché in Brazil from 1973 to 1976. I sought to interpret the sources listed,
including Colonel Trinquier's book and pamphlets popularizing the French doctrine in
Brazil, as well as the film The Battle of Algiers, which was used as a teaching material by
French attaches. The colonial terror of French heritage circulated its ideas, which were reelaborated and applied as state terror and national security doctrine, here in Nuestra America.
The French doctrine also served as basic know-how for the imperialist aggression of the
United States against the people of Vietnam, all amalgamated by the anti-communism that
mobilized the West during the Cold War.