My paper will survey Houari Boumedienne’s policy with France, which had important internal besides external consequences. From 1965 to 1978, cooperation and conflict characterized bilateral relations, with occasional “psychodramas,” e.g., the nationalization of French hydrocarbons concessions in February 1971. The paper argues that the bilateral relationship with France was of paramount importance since it also correlated to Boumedienne’s state-building enterprise, in particular, the definition and projection of a national identity. To Boumedienne and his government (and generation), the Evian Accords represented an incomplete decolonization. Although Algeria acquired political independence in 1962, France preserved its preponderate economic position. Furthermore, French culture and language continued to exercise powerful influence, which contradicted Algeria’s Arabic heritage. Boumedienne addressed the perpetuated French presence by pursuing policies of “post-colonial decolonization.” There was a paradox inherent in this praxis. While more than willing to confront France and free Algeria from France’s continuing commercial and cultural domination, Boumedienne understood that Algeria needed French cooperation (assistance programs) for his ambitious state-building plans (e.g., the Four-Year Plans). Thus, a deterioration of relations potentially risked cultural and technical cooperation (i.e., the teaching and training of Algerians), financial assistance, and also threatened the status of the growing Algerian community in France. The paper will highlight hydrocarbons relations from the Algiers Accords of 1965 to the nationalization of 1971, a salient example of post-colonial decolonization. The Cultural Revolution featuring Arabization will also be considered. The effort to revive the bilateral relationship (termed the relancement) after the hydrocarbons nationalization, namely Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s visit to Paris in 1973 and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s arrival in Algeria in 1975, will also be examined. At the time of his untimely death, bilateral relations had precipitously declined as a result of widening commercial imbalances and differences over Western Sahara. The conclusion assesses the policies of post-colonial decolonization and asserts that Boumedienne used the French relationship to shape his imagination of an Algerian nation, a project that was existential as well as political.