Raoul Albin Louis Salan was a French Army general and the founder of the Organisation armée secrète, a clandestine terrorist organisation that sought to defend the French colonial empire by preventing Algerian independence. He served as the fourth French commanding general during the First Indochina War. He was one of four retired generals who organized the 1961 Algiers Putsch operation. He was the most decorated soldier in the French Army at the end of his military career.

The Organisation armée secrète was a far-right French dissident paramilitary and terrorist organisation during the Algerian War. The OAS carried out terrorist attacks, including bombings and assassinations, in an attempt to prevent Algeria's independence from French colonial rule. Its motto was L’Algérie est française et le restera.