Organisation de LArmée Secrète OAS

a military-fascist group in France in the early 1960’s.

The OAS was established during the spring of 1961, at the time of the Algerian people’s war for national liberation (1954–62), by ultracolonialist military officers, among them Generals R. Salan, E. Jouhaud, and J. Gardy, Colonels A. Argould, J. Gardes, and Y. Godard, and Captain P. Sergeant, acting jointly with right-wing extremist political leaders such as J. Soustelle and G. Bidault. The organization’s principal goal was to prevent the granting of independence to Algeria. With an extensive network of agents in both the police and army, the OAS carried out assassinations and bombings in France and in Algeria. It organized an attempt on the life of General De Gaulle and strove to establish a military fascist regime in France.

After Algeria won its independence in 1962, the OAS shifted its base of operations to France and neighboring countries. However, having failed to achieve its aims, the group degenerated into a gang of criminals and was soon rendered harmless. Using such means as mass demonstrations and committees for the struggle against fascism, democratic forces played a large role in the fight against the OAS. The leaders of the OAS, although sentenced to long terms in prison, were granted amnesty by the government as early as 1968.