The death of the writer meant more than that; it symbolised the final snuffing out of the light of hope of a “third force”, of moderation and liberalism, that had flickered up occasionally during the war. Attacked by such members of the Left in France as Francis Jeanson for being but an opiate of the masses and of knowing only how to spend vast sums of money on “neo-colonial” schemes, besieged by the F.L.N., and now finally extinguished by the O.A.S., the battered ideal of the “third force” died at a time when Algeria had never been more in need of men of goodwill, and enemies of excess and violence. As is so often the tragic path of revolution, it was the Montagne that triumphed over the Gironde.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1585