In the Algerian War what led—probably more than any other single factor—to the ultimate defeat of France was the realisation, in France and the world at large, that methods of interrogation were being used that had been condemned under the Nazi Occupation. … As a further footnote to my tenet, learned in Algeria, that torture should never, never, never be resorted to by any Western society, I draw readers once again to the testimony of Prefect Teitgen of Algiers (see) which —three decades on—I still find deeply moving.

QUESTION: The claim that torture more than any other factor caused France's defeat is a contestable historical assertion worth probing. XREF: Connects to the broader theme of how a nation's moral standing shapes the outcome of asymmetric conflicts.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 51