The French government assiduously refused to recognise operations in Algeria as anything more than the “maintenance of order”; it was not even a “campaign”, thus the Croix de Guerre could not be awarded and a new decoration, the Médaille de la Valeur Militaire, had to be struck.

XREF: Connects to broader histories of how states misname conflicts for political and legal reasons, such as the US 'police action' in Korea.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 547