So it was imperative to reach a settlement before a complete breakdown of civil order occurred in Algeria. Just such an aim had indeed become a priority of the O.A.S.: to provoke a Muslim backlash by their ferocious outrages, which would in turn force French army riposte, thereby wrecking negotiations with the F.L.N. But it was a strategy that totally defeated its own ends; far from preventing negotiations, the O.A.S. terror was precipitating them and making both sides more disposed to concluding a final settlement.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1548