Edmond Jouhaud

Who was Edmond Jouhaud?

Edmond Jouhaud was one of four French generals who briefly staged a putsch in Algeria in April 1961. As Army General he had been the Inspector General of the Air Force in French North Africa. After the failure of the putsch, he became the deputy of Raoul Salan in the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète. While Salan fled to Spain, Jouhaud remained out of loyalty to his birthplace.

He was captured in March 1962 and rapidly sentenced to death by a military court. However, after his OAS superior Salan was given only a prison sentence in a civilian court, opinion turned against executing him. He called for the remaining activists of OAS to end their militant campaign, and after a harrowing five-month period of uncertainty his sentence was commuted by de Gaulle. He was released in 1967. He was rehabilitated by a law passed in 1982 under the presidency of François Mitterrand.

A descendant of early Algerian pioneers of Corsican descent, Jouhaud was one of the most decorated officers in the French military prior to participating in the putsch. He was notably pro-American in his political views.