Charles Lacheroy (22 August 1906 – 25 January 2005) was a

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

officer, theorist of counterinsurgency warfare, and member of the Organisation armée secrète.

Biography

Lacheroy was born to a military family. His father was a decorated infantry second lieutenant (

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

and ''

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

''), killed on 2 August 1916 at Fleury, next to

Douaumont Douaumont () is a former commune in the Meuse department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Douaumont-Vaux.Prytanée National Militaire The Prytanée national militaire is a French military school managed by the French military, offering regular secondary education as well as special preparatory classes, equivalent in level to the first years of university, for students who wish ...

, and graduated from Saint-Cyr in 1927 among the 20 best students of the promotion (promotion "Maroc-Syrie"). Lacheroy chose the Colonial infantry and obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the 3rd

Méhariste Méhariste is a French word that roughly translates to camel cavalry. The word is most commonly used as a designation of military units. French camel corps Origins France created a corps of méhariste camel companies (''Compagnies Méharistes ...

company in Levant at

Latakia , coordinates = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = 11 , elevation_ft = , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code = Country code: 963 City code: 41 , geocode ...

, where he remained until 1935. Promoted to captain, Lacheroy served as instructor for the air group in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

from 1936. There, he met Antoine Argoud. Lacheroy married in 1937. From 1941, Lacheroy served in the staff of General de Lattre de Tassigny in Tunisia. In 1951, he was sent to

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

, where he was tasked to protect a railroad to Saigon and secure the sector of Bien Hoa. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Lacheroy was transferred to Paris and made director of the Centre d'études asiatiques et africaines (CEAA). There, he developed a theory of

Counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionar ...

warfare, by then known as "psychological action".Charles Lacheroy, ''De Saint-Cyr à l'action psychologique. Mémoires d'un siècle'', Panazol : Lavauzelle, 2003, 203 p. In 1954, he served as adviser to Defence minister

Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury Maurice Jean Marie Bourgès-Maunoury (; 19 August 1914 – 10 February 1993) was a French Radical politician who served as the Prime Minister in the Fourth Republic during 1957. Bourgès-Maunoury was born in Luisant, Eure-et-Loir. He is famo ...

, and Defence minister André Morice in 1956. In 1958, Lacheroy was dismissed by

Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d� ...

and sent to the Constantine Province. On 13 May, he was made director of information and psychological action services in Algiers. In December, he gave conferences at the École supérieure de guerre, and later made director of the École supérieure des officiers de réserve spécialistes d'état-major. In the early 1960s, Lacheroy resigned his commission to organise a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

against President

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

. For seven years, he lived underground, along with Antoine Argoud,

Pierre Lagaillarde Pierre Lagaillarde (; Courbevoie, 15 May 1931 – 17 August 2014) was a French politician, and a founder of the ''Organisation armée secrète'' (OAS). Lagaillarde was a lawyer at Blida in Algeria, a reserve officer of the paratroopers, and an e ...

and Jo Ortiz, and directed the

OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification), ...

. He was sentenced to death '' in absentia'' in April 1961. Lacheroy was amnestied in 1968. He returned to Paris, where he retired. Charles Lacheroy died on 25 January 2005 in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. ...

Notes and references

External links

Service historique de la défense
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacheroy, Charles 1906 births 2005 deaths People from Chalon-sur-Saône French Army officers French male non-fiction writers French military writers French military personnel of World War II French military personnel of the First Indochina War French military personnel of the Algerian War French torturers French war criminals Counterterrorism theorists Counterinsurgency theorists École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr alumni 20th-century French male writers OAS members convicted in absentia OAS members who fled to Spain People convicted of treason against France People sentenced to death in absentia by France Recipients of French presidential pardons War criminals of the Algerian War