Roger Trinquier

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Roger Trinquier (20 March 1908 – 11 January 1986) was a

Early life

Roger Trinquier was born on 20 March 1908 in La Beaume, a small village in the Hautes-Alpes department, to a peasant family. He studied at a one-room village school in his home village until 1920, when he entered the Ecole Normale of Aix-en-Provence. He graduated in 1928 at twenty and was called up for 2 years' compulsory military service, being sent to the French Army's reserve officers’ school, where unlike most of his classmates he became interested in the military.

When Trinquier's two years of compulsory military service came to an end, he decided to remain in the army and was transferred to the active officers’ school of Saint-Maixent, from which he graduated in 1933 as a second lieutenant. He now joined the

In late December 1951, Trinquier was again in Indochina for his third tour – this time in the newly formed Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés (GCMA) (Composite Airborne Commando Group) commanded by Edmond Grall. Trinquier took over the command of the GCMA in early 1953 and directed the fighting behind Viet Minh lines, creating a maquis in the Tonkinese upper region and in Laos, totaling around 30,000 men. Trinquier's maquis contributed to the successful evacuation of the fortified airhead at Na San, in August 1953, and the reoccupation of the Phong Saly and Sam Neua provinces. After the French withdrawal following the defeat of Dien Bien Phu, Trinquier's maquis was left behind and hunted down by Ho Chi Minh's forces.

Algeria

Trinquier returned to France in January 1955, being promoted to

After a brief stay in France as a director to the airborne school, Trinquier returned to Algeria in March 1958 to take over command of the 3rd Colonial Parachute Regiment, soon to be the

During the first half of 1959, Trinquier led the regiment during the Challe Offensive, proposed by the French commander in Algeria, Maurice Challe, to cripple the FLN. In March 1959, he handed over the command of the regiment to Louis Bonnigal and in July, took command of the El Milia sector in Constantine department. He was recalled to France in July 1960 and in December assigned to Nice and the staff of the general commanding that group of sub-divisions.

Later life

On 26 January 1961, Trinquier asked for early retirement from the army into the reserve. He was then hired by

With Colonel Buchoud, he was one of the founders of the National Union of Paratroopers (Union Nationale des Parachutistes, UNP), for veterans of the French airborne force. Trinquier was also its first president from 1963 to 1965, before stepping down for General Jean Gracieux.[1]

Modern Warfare

Trinquier is a theorist on the style of warfare he called Modern Warfare, an "interlocking system of actions – political, economic, psychological, military – which aims at the overthrow of the established authority in a country and its replacement by another regime." (Modern Warfare, Ch. 2). He was critical of the traditional army's inability to adapt to this new kind of warfare. These tactics included the use of small and mobile commando teams, torture, the setting-up of self-defense forces recruited in the local population, and their forced relocation in camps, as well as psychological and educational operations.

Perhaps his most original contribution was his study and application of terrorism and torture as it related to this Modern Warfare. He argued that it was immoral to treat terrorists as criminals, and to hold them criminally liable for their acts. In his view terrorists should be treated as soldiers, albeit with the qualification that while they may attack civilian targets and wear no uniform, they also must be tortured for the very specific purpose of betraying their organization. Trinquier's criteria for torture was that the terrorist was to be asked only questions that related to the organization of his movement, that the interrogators must know what to ask, and that once the information is obtained the torture must stop and the terrorist is then treated as any other prisoner of war. (See Chapter 4 of Modern Warfare).

The French Army applied Trinquier's tactics during the Algerian War. In the short run these tactics resulted in a decisive victory in the

• Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency (1961)
• Roger Trinquier, La Guerre moderne, Paris: La Table ronde, 1961.
• Roger Trinquier, Le coup d’État du 13 mai. Esprit Nouveau, 1962. Trinquier denounces the foundation of the French Fifth Republic as a coup d'état.
• Roger Trinquier, Jacques Duchemin, and Jacques Le Bailly, Notre guerre au Katanga. Paris: La Pensée Moderne, 1963. Trinquier relates his implication in Katanga.
• Roger Trinquier, L’État Nouveau. Nouvelles Editions Latines, 1964.
• Roger Trinquier, Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency, trans. Daniel Lee (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964).
• Roger Trinquier, La Bataille pour l’élection du président de la république. L'Indépendant, 1965
• Roger Trinquier, Guerre, subversion, révolution. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1968.
• Roger Trinquier, Les Maquis d’Indochine. Les missions spéciales du service action. Paris: Albatros, 1976.
• Roger Trinquier, Le premier bataillon des Bérets rouges: Indochine 1947–1949. Paris: Plon, 1984.
• Roger Trinquier, La Guerre. Paris: Albin Michel.

See also

• Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés
• David Galula

References and notes