For, with the shaky state of morale both among the civilians and A.L.N. units inside Algeria, had they accepted the paix des braves, even only as preliminary parley, the revolution might well have begun to flicker out and would have been extremely difficult to rekindle if the talks assumed a course unfavourable to the F.L.N. De Gaulle would have won the war; on the other hand, by rejecting the paix des braves the F.L.N. were, eventually, to win it.

QUESTION: Would accepting the peace offer as a preliminary parley really have extinguished the revolution, or was de Gaulle's sincerity stronger than assumed?

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 975