What Vietnam was to America, Algeria was to France. The country, on the African coast, was a French colony since the Napoleonic era, and never very content to remain so. Events came to a head when an Algerian  paramilitary force launched attacks on key military and communications installations in the country, at the same time calling for a general uprising of all Muslims against the oppressors. Once the French army moved in, the rebels took to the impassable terrain with classic guerrilla hit-and-run tactics to be imitated to a large degree by the Vietcong some 10 years later.

On this day, March 18, 1962, eight years after the FLN (National Liberation Front – the Algerian rebels) and the French government concluded a truce, in preparation for a formal cease-fire the next day. With the French still unable to properly gain control of the country, it was time for them leave.

As the Americans in Vietnam, the French had more or less unchallenged military control of the land, but were unable to suppress the resistance — this, despite sectioning out the country into quadrants and assigning a military commander to each one. The French public were reminded of a previous face-losing occupation debacle in Indochina, and wide calls for a pullout led to a referendum, which was almost universally approved. That in effect ended the French claims on Algeria.