Did Charles de Gaulle, summoned back in 1958 to meet France's constitutional crisis and end the Algerian war, realise all this?

ECONOMIST: Algeria then and now

"Go back and read history of the Algerian war and the French, " Mr. Kerry told the German students in Berlin on Tuesday.

WSJ: Kerry Hits Bumpy Road in World Diplomacy

And it is interesting to speculate on what might have happened to his reputation if he had been given the interior ministry that he so coveted, and thus been responsible for the French police during the Algerian war or the events of 1968.

ECONOMIST: Intellectual adventurers

Although immigration from North Africa is a century-long phenomenon (170, 000 Algerians and 130, 000 Moroccans were recruited to fight for France in the first world war), what sticks in the memory is the bitterness of the Algerian war of 1954-62, when Frenchmen and Algerians killed and tortured each other with enthusiastic brutality.

ECONOMIST: France's Muslims