Lagaillarde himself had returned to study law at Algiers University the previous autumn, having completed his military service as a sous-lieutenant with the paras. This had taken him to Suez and through the Battle of Algiers, and the redoubtable Colonel Trinquier had been sufficiently impressed to invite him to stay on, which Lagaillarde had refused with the contemptuous rebuff: "The paras have every physical courage, but no civil courage!"

XREF: Connects to broader themes about military units and political/civil responsibility, linking to discussions of the Algerian War and the role of the paras.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 848