ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the fact that the actors articulated critiques of the war from the vantage point of those who had waged it guaranteed a strong impact in French public discourse. It argues that each of these important actors in the anti-war movement invoked memory to various degrees and timescales, ranging from immediate testimony of serving in Algeria, the memory of the Second World War or the memory of the longer history of the French Republican army. It is striking that the Federation nationale des anciens combattants en Algerie (FNACA) conveyed authority here primarily in terms of transmitting the memory of the veteran as victim. Carving out their own authority as authoritative witnesses of the war in Algeria in the wider and competitive world of French veterans' associations was one of the main tasks that FNACA undertook. The chapter shows that the FNACA was vociferously opposed to diehard pro-French Algeria officers.
