Sergent's reasoning, echoing the self-deception that had haunted the French army all the way through the Algerian war, was that ever since 1954 the Communists had never ceased to be the principal ally of the F.L.N., and now "to live in peace with French Communism while carrying on the war with the Algerian rebels was and remains a nonsense or a treason". A second, and perhaps even more naïve aim, was to force the Gaullists into an impossible position of either choosing to tolerate the angry reactions of the French Communist Party when attacked by the O.A.S., thus appearing as its accomplice, or to confront it and risk a breach with the Left.

DEFINE: Clarifies the O.A.S.'s political reasoning: it saw French Communists as de facto FLN allies, making attacks on them consistent with the Algerian war.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1526