 When a monument to the Unknown Soldier of the Algerian War was erected in 1977, the French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in his dedication speech refused to use the words war or Algeria, instead using the phrase "the unknown soldier of North Africa".A national monument to the French war dead was not built until 1996, and even then spoke only of those killed fighting in ""Afrique du nord"" and was located in a decrepit area of Paris rarely visited by tourists, as if to hide the monument.Further adding to the silence were the vested interests of French politicians.