Algeria: A How-To of Modern Jihad

The Soviets had strongly advised the Palestinian movement to emulate the “Algerian model.” By forcing the French out of Algeria, the Algerian insurrection had been a signal success. The Algerian insurrectionists became the poster boys of the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist struggle of the “oppressed and exploited people – the living embodiment, in other words, of Leninist ambitions – the Baku Congress come to life. After the victory of the Viet Minh against the French Army in 1954, the Algerian War was the next great nexus of the third world revolt against “capitalism.” Support for the Algerian cause was the main headline at the 1955 Bandung Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. Propaganda poured out of Nasser's Cairo, notably on the waves of “Voice of the Arabs” radio, and along with the multitudinous organs of Pan-Arabism, incessantly drummed up the glories of the Algerian FLN.