Henceforth it would focus with sharpest clarity the covetous eyes of the all-powerful Anglo-American oil interests on Algeria. Not always without reason, France would be nagged by suspicions that shady deals were being done with the F.L.N. behind her back, with a view to ensuring that her rivals got in on the ground floor in an independent Algeria. Edward Behr, who was a correspondent in France at the time, recalls how "for a brief spell officer-cadets in French military schools were systematically taught a course in 'American imperialism', and it was stated as an incontrovertible fact that the United States had designs on the newly discovered Saharan oil deposits". In addition to the "Anglo-Saxon" villains in this shadowy oil war, there was also Italy's maverick oil operator, the unpredictable Enrico Mattei, who was openly to supply the F.L.N. with money and arms in return for future "considerations".

XREF: Connects to the general pattern of Cold War-era power competition over resource-rich former colonies, echoing decolonization histories in the Middle East and Africa.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 755