From his great height the eyes quested far over the heads of lesser humans to the peaks of a distant promised land. If there was one thing in the pursuit of which he was unwavering all through his life, it was the grandeur de la France, dreamed of in those solitary years in the wilderness. In the long term nothing else mattered, or would be allowed to stand in its way, and this should be retained in the mind as a key to all the enigma of his subsequent actions. He would achieve his dream; even though in the course of it Algeria would be lost, had to be lost.

XREF: Connects to leadership psychology and how a fixed overarching vision can justify costly sacrifices, similar to analyses of Churchill or Bismarck.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 913