1956 - King Mohamed V and Morocco’s Military
On the eve of independence the country was still occupied in its respective protectorate zones by approximately 85,000 French troops and some 60,000 Spanish soldiers. As Morocco had no national military establishment of its own, Mohammed V entered into formal agreements with France and Spain to get them to assist in the development of a military force adequate to meet his country's needs. The achievement of this end, however, was fraught with the need to act with utmost speed.
Domestic internal security requirements were exacerbated by a growing political struggle for control of the future Moroccan military arm by the nationalist forces of the independence party, the Istiqlal; the king, who was nominally allied with the Istiqlal; and the guerrilla fighters of the Army of National Liberation (Armee de Liberation Nationale—ALN). In neighboring Algeria the French were defending their position against an independence struggle mounted by the Algerian nationalist movement, which also threatened pressures on Morocco. Thus, as Morocco became an independent state, Mohammed V gave utmost priority to the creation of the armed forces.
From the outset the structuring and the development of the FAR were dependent primarily on the decisions of Crown Prince Mulay Hassan. The future King Hassan II declared that his goal was the creation of a military establishment that would assist in stabilizing the country. Left unstated was the royal family's desire to acquire a monopoly of power to secure and perpetuate the monarchy.
In early March 1956 a military commission was appointed by Mohammed V to work out the details of establishing a viable armed force. The commission included the sultan, his son Crown Prince Mulay Hassan, ranking cabinet ministers, French army officers, and senior Moroccan officers from the French army. Shortly thereafter, the sultan announced the creation of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff (Etat-Major General). Ahmed Reda Guedira, a close associate of the sultan who remained as one of Hassan's closest advisers in the mid-1980s, was named minister of defense, and Hassan was appointed chief of the General Staff.
In subsequent negotiations with the French and the Spanish, the commission adopted as its goal the formation of a 20,000-man army by the end of 1956, to be formed by the transfer of Moroccan units from the French army. By May 1956 the new force comprised 14,000 officers and men and 200 vehicles. Included were 10 infantry battalions of former French goumiers, one infantry battalion of former French tirailleurs, two infantry battalions of former Spanish units, one cavalry battalion, one armored group, one artillery group, one engineer battalion, one mule company, one signal detachment, one transport company, and one logistics group.
All units were under authorized strength in both personnel and equipment, and uniforms were a diverse mixture of French and Spanish origin. During the next year it was expanded by the integration of 10,000 additional Moroccans who had served in the Spanish protectorate forces and by the absorption of elements of the ALN who agreed to join. Because the new army initially lacked sufficient numbers of trained Moroccan military leaders, the French supplied nearly 1,000 commissioned officers and a like number of NCOs on one-year contracts to satisfy the immediate requirement. A longer range solution eventually was provided by agreements under which the French and Spanish governments opened their national military academies at Saint Cyr and Toledo, respectively, to Moroccan officer candidates for one-year accelerated training programs; about 200 officer candidates entered each school in the summer of 1956. The French also undertook to staff and conduct officer training at the Royal Military Academy at Dar al Bayda near Meknes and provided instructors for a new school for NCOs that was established at Ahermoumou.
Mohamed V, in a decree on 25 June 1956, created Morocco’s military, establishing an organization and structure that changed very little through 1972. While the king was the supreme chief of the FAR, he appointed his son, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (later Hassan II), as the chief of the FAR General Staff. The king also appointed a Ministry of National Defense (Ministère de la Défense Nationale, MDN) by decree on 8 November 1956; from its inception, this organization was responsible for managing national defense affairs and procuring weapons and other materiel. Also, on 9 November 1959, Mohamed V created a High Council for National Defense (Conseil Supérieur de la Défense Nationale, CSDN) to provide high-level oversight of defense and security affairs.
Mohamed V’s major accomplishments with regard to the newly established FAR included developing a training command and establishing military schools; organizing FAR units and establishing a rank structure, along with a standardized system of recruitment, retention, and promotion; creating the MDN and the CSDN; and establishing a military justice and courts system.
In the first years after the ending of the protectorate, the army was employed on several occasions to assist in maintaining internal security. Most significantly, during the autumn and winter of 1958-59 the FAR was called upon to suppress a widespread rebellion in the Rif - led by dissident elements of the ALN.
The early years of Mohamed V’s reign were beset by discontent and armed unrest among many nationalist groups who were unwilling to replace the constraints of French colonial rule with an independent monarchy. Political efforts by the then-ruling Istiqlal Party to marginalize two key Berber rural leaders of the People’s Movement (Harakat Shaabia), Dr. Abdulkrim Khatib and Mahjoubi Aherdane caused an inter-party dispute that escalated into full-scale rebellion in the northern Rif region and part of the Middle Atlas and ultimately required FAR intervention.
Hassan took personal control of the operation and led 20,000 army troops against rebels concentrated in the area between Al Hoceima and Taza. Promises to the rebels of a review of grievances and the giving of pardons, combined with military intimidation, helped end the revolt. The FAR suppressed the Rif revolt by mid-February 1959, with considerable losses to the rebels. The severity of the government’s measures against the insurgents created an enmity with the monarchy that lasted to the end of King Hassan II’s reign.
The army was used relatively sparingly in internal security situations after the quelling of the Rif uprising, although troops were used to back up the police on occasion, notably during the severe riots in Casablanca in 1965. According to a view commonly held by analysts of Morocco and summarized by political scientist Wilfred Knapp, "for internal security, the importance of the army was in its potential."
The army in its early years was also used occasionally along and beyond the country's borders. In July 1960 Morocco responded to a UN appeal for troops to aid in quelling an outbreak of violence in the Congo (present-day Zaire) by airlifting a complete army battalion to the troubled area in four days. These Moroccan military forces included 3,700 of the country's best troops, most of the General Staff, and an army brigadier general who served for a time as deputy commander of the UN forces. Moroccan troops served with distinction in the Congo under UN command until they were withdrawn in January 1961.
Moroccan forces were also used to press the kingdom's irredentist claims against its neighbors in the early postindependence period. The presence of large numbers of French and Spanish troops serving on secondment as officers and NCOs in the FAR prevented the regular army from being usefully deployed against neighboring French and Spanish possessions during this time, although irregular forces raided across the borders into Ifni and the Spanish Sahara. Morocco was less circumspect with Algeria after the latter's independence from France in 1962. In the sporadic engagements that characterized the war of the sands, most analysts concluded that the Moroccans performed somewhat better than the Algerians, but the effectiveness of both armies was hampered by their reliance on long and inefficient supply lines.
Mohamed V had good relations with the United States as well as with Morocco’s former European rulers. In this respect, the FAR benefitted in terms of military training and equipment provided by Western powers. Morocco strongly supported both the UN and the recently formed Organization for African Unity (OAU). The first international deployment of Moroccan troops under UN auspices to the Congo took place during Mohamed V’s final year of rule. In addition, Morocco supported the OAU’s first efforts to develop a peacekeeping force in Africa.
Moroccan forces were part of the UN force deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from July 1960 through March 1961. Moroccan troops were deployed to the interior of the country, particularly to Katanga Province, to disarm rebel forces. Part of the force provided security in areas where critical infrastructure, including the Inga Dam and the ports of Matadi and Boma, was being built or improved. Some elements of the FAR assisted in police training in areas of the Congo to which they were deployed.
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