Contesting France: French informants and American intelligence in the dawning Cold War

Abstract

By integrating French archives and untapped US intelligence records, this article uncovers a debate within US government circles about the accuracy of the entrenched image of France at the onset of the Cold War as decadent and teetering toward revolution. In exchanges with the White House, State Department and military, right-leaning French sources bolstered this view. French contacts in the Resistance meanwhile shaped Office of Strategic Services analysis that France was a strong, worthy ally. France became a contested idea with warring factions in both capitals seeking to influence US policy – with repercussions for Franco-American relations for decades to come.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Max Paul Friedman, Kaeten Mistry, Lisa Leff, Richard Breitman, Anton Fedyashin, Johanna Neuman and two anonymous reviewers for the excellent feedback they provided on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

¹ William Koren, “Franco-American Relations,” October 30, 1944, File 102671, Box 1162, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, National Archives, College Park, Maryland (hereafter NARA).

² For example, Irwin Wall, in The United States and the Making of Postwar France 1945–1954 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 21–3, suggested that Roosevelt was contemptuous of France for its chronic instability and multitude of political parties, and that his difficulty with de Gaulle stemmed from their shared intolerance of opposition. Charles Robertson, in When Roosevelt Planned to Govern France (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 14–15, 35, explained this contempt as a response to France’s stunning collapse; he also noted the hostility to de Gaulle among Roosevelt’s advisors and influential Frenchmen. Frank Costigliola, in France and the United States: The Cold Alliance Since World War II (New York: Twayne, 1992), 8–9, acknowledged this persistent hostility and argued that administration officials judged French political ambitions as ‘petty, dangerous, and implicitly feminine intrigues…’

³ Veronika Heyde’s study of reciprocal influence between non-Communist resistance elements in Europe and American groups, including the OSS, on the idea of European unification demonstrates one effective way to examine interaction between various factions on a specific issue: De l’Esprit de la Résistance Jusqu'à l’Idée de l’Europe (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2010).

⁴ A reference to Geir Lundestad, “‘Empire by Invitation?’: The United States and Western Europe, 1945–1952,” Journal of Peace Research 23, no. 3 (1986): 263.

⁵ William Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944–1954 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 8–9, 204.

⁶ Alessandro Brogi, A Question of Self-Esteem: The United States and the Cold War Choices in France and Italy, 1944–1958 (Westport: Praeger, 2002), 265.

⁷ Charles Luguet, “Notes,” January 10, 1944, Politiques Internationales, Dossier 1, Archives du General de Gaulle (hereafter ADG), Archives Nationale, Pierrefitte (hereafter AN).

⁸ Here used to mean ‘nationalists’.

⁹ Luguet, “Notes.”

¹⁰ For example, see Rudolf E. Schoenfeld, “Transmitting Copies of Report Entitled: The Internal Situation in France,” February 3, 1944, Box 5141, 851.00, RG 59, NARA; see also “Recent Developments in the French Communist Party,” November 13, 1944, Box 5142, 851.00, RG 59, NARA.

¹¹ Jay Allen, quoted in Martin Weil, A Pretty Good Club: The Founding Fathers of the US Foreign Service (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978), 121.

¹² Barry M. Katz, Foreign Intelligence: Research and Analysis in the Office of Strategic Services, 1942–1945 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 2.

¹³ Weil, A Pretty Good Club, 47.

¹⁴ Mowrer, quoted in Weil, A Pretty Good Club, 127.

¹⁵ Weil, A Pretty Good Club, 119.

¹⁶ Annie Lacroix-Riz, De Munich à Vichy: L’assassinat de la Troisième République 1938–1940 (Paris: Armand Colin, 2008).

¹⁷ “Lisbon Telegram,” January 6, 1944, Box 5141, 851.00, RG 59, NARA.

¹⁸ “Reasons Underlying this Government’s Lack of Confidence in General de Gaulle,” January 20, 1944, Box 5141, 851.00, RG 59, NARA; H. Freeman Matthews, “Note,” February 29, 1944, Box 17, Chairman’s File–Leahy, RG 218, NARA; Matthews, “Memo of Conversation,” March 6, 1944, Box 5151, 851.01, RG 59, NARA.

¹⁹ Jean Lacouture, De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944, trans. Patrick O’Brien (New York: W.W. Norton, 1990), 346.

²⁰ Stephen Ambrose, Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment (New York: Random House, 1981), 20.

²¹ Matthews, “Memo of Conversation.”

²² “Dossier Mornay,” January 25, 1944, Box 166, Map Room Papers, Naval Aide’s Files A-16, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (hereafter FDRL).

²³ Weil, A Pretty Good Club, 123.

²⁴ “Dossier Mornay;” Robertson, When Roosevelt Planned, 112.

²⁵ “Underground, Communists, and Invasion Aid,” March 13, 1944, File 63882, Box 772, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

²⁶ Jean-Pierre Laurent, “Paul Vignaux, inspirateur de la ‘Deuxième gauche’: récits d’un exil français aux Etats-Unis pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale,” Matériaux pour l’histoire de notre temps, no. 60 (2000), 53.

²⁷ “De Gaulle’s Politics and the French Underground,” May 23, 1944, File 75825, Box 900, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

²⁸ “Internal Conditions in France,” April 14, 1944, File 73143, Box 875, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

²⁹ “Marshall Memo to the President,” April 15, 1944, Box 20, JCS Chairman's File--Leahy, RG 218, NARA.

³⁰ “Mott Report,” April 11, 1944, ibid.

³¹ “Marshall Memo for the President,” April 18, 1944, Box 166, Map Room Files, Naval Aide's Files A-16, FDRL.

³² “Memorandum,” September 1944, Box 5141, 851.00, RG 59, NARA.

³³ “France: Political Groups and Revolutionary Movements,” September 21, 1944, File 96770, Box 1110, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

³⁴ “Conversation with Marcel Cachin,” September 24, 1944, Box 5142, 851.01, RG 59, NARA.

³⁵ “Hoppenot à MAE,” October 16, 1944, sous-série Politique Extérieure, P4712, Dossier 119, série Amérique, Ministère des affaires étrangères, La Courneuve (hereafter MAE).

³⁶ “Caffery to Secretary of State,” October 20, 1944, in Foreign Relations of the United States: 1944, Volume 3 (Washington DC: GPO, 1965), 742–3.

³⁷ On Politicised Analysis, see Robert Kennedy, Of Knowledge and Power: The Complexities of National Intelligence (Westport: Praeger, 2008), 105–107.

³⁸ Katz, Foreign Intelligence, 13–14.

³⁹ Hughes, quoted in Katz, Foreign Intelligence, 182.

⁴⁰ Katz, Foreign Intelligence, 182.

⁴¹ “Summary of Views on Communists in Resistance Movement,” March 3, 1944, File 60656, Box 735, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

⁴² “The Resistance in France,” sent to Secretary of State March 8, 1944, Box 5151, 851.01, RG 59, NARA.

⁴³ “Conversations with French Resistance Leader,” forwarded to Roosevelt on April 3, 1944, Roll 23, M1642, OSS Director’s Office, RG 226, NARA.

⁴⁴ “France: Increased Persecution of the Maquis,” May 1, 1944, Roll 31, M1642, OSS Director’s Office, RG 226, NARA.

⁴⁵ “Current Franco-American Tension,” June 1, 1944, File 75470, Box 896, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

⁴⁶ “Ramon Guthrie, Poet, Dies at 77,” The New York Times, November 23, 1973, 38. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. www.proquest.com.

⁴⁷ “Report on Impressions of the French Situation,” June 29, 1944, Roll 50, M1642, OSS Director’s Files, RG 226, NARA.

⁴⁸ “Bern to Director OSS,” October 23, 1944, Box 5142, 851.00, RG 59, NARA.

⁴⁹ “Initial Progress in Mutual Understanding among Different Groups,” November 30, 1944, File 105182, Box 1187, Intelligence Reports, RG 226, NARA.

⁵⁰ On cognitive bias, see Kennedy, Of Knowledge and Power, 89–91.

⁵¹ James Bruce and Roger George, “Introduction,” in Analyzing Intelligence: Origins, Obstacles, and Innovations, eds. Roger George and James Bruce (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2008), 8–9, 21.

⁵² “Le Communisme en France,” January 1944, PCF, France Libérée, ADG, AN. The PCF’s post-Liberation goals and relationship with Moscow remains the subject of lively debate. Jacques Fauvet, and later Irwin Wall, argued that although the PCF and Soviets maintained close relations, PCF leaders did not intend to seize power or to install a ‘Soviet republic’ in France upon Liberation. See Fauvet, Histoire du Parti Communiste Français de 1920 à 1976 (Paris: Fayard, 1977) and Wall, French Communism in the Era of Stalin (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983). More recent scholarship based upon Russian and PCF archives challenged this contention. Philippe Buton, followed closely by Stéphane Courtois and Marc Lazar, argued that the PCF was directed by Moscow during this period, and that Communist leaders intended to seize power in France at Liberation but were thwarted by the failure of the national insurrection, Gaullist manoeuvres, and international constraints. See Buton, Les Lendemains Qui Déchantent (Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1993); Courtois and Lazar, Histoire de Parti Communiste Français (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2000). However, some scholars cast doubt on the degree of closeness in PCF relations with Moscow during this period. For example, see Anna di Biago, “The Establishment of the Cominform,” in Giuliano Procacci et al., eds., The Cominform: Minutes of the Three Conferences 1947/1948/1949 (Milano: Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrini, 1994). This collection of essays and transcribed minutes of the inaugural Cominform, in particular, shed light on the nature of Soviet and Yugoslav criticism of the PCF’s post-Liberation policy, and suggest to this author that the PCF did not have revolutionary goals nor plans to illegally seize power before 1947.

⁵³ P. Collomb, “Lettre à Monsieur le Marchal, Secrétaire Général du Protectorat,” April 3, 1944, sous-série Maroc, Dossier 1, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁵⁴ Gabriel Puaux, “Action Communiste en milieu Musulman,” May 2, 1944, sous-série Maroc, Dossier 1, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Léon Muscatelli, “Le Préfet d’Alger à Monsieur le Gouverneur General de l’Algérie,” January 26, 1944, sous-série Algérie, Dossier 3, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ “Similitude entre le programme Neo-Destour et celui du Parti Communiste de Tunisie,” February 5, 1944, sous-série Tunisie, Dossier 2, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁵⁹ “Action et propagande Communiste en milieux indigènes,” April 6, 1944, sous-série Maroc, Dossier 1, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁶⁰ “Communisme,” May 20, 1944, sous-série Maroc, Dossier 1, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁶¹ “Parti Communiste tunisien,” July 24, 1944, sous-série Tunisie, Dossier 2, série Questions Coloniales, ADG, AN.

⁶² “Attitude du Parti Communiste,” November 13, 1944, sous-série Tunisie, P4027, Direction Afrique-Levant, MAE.

⁶³ “Situation politique générale en Algérie,” November 23, 1944, sous-série Algérie, Dossier 2, Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Française, AN.

⁶⁴ “Monsieur Doucet à Monsieur Rabaud,” February 22, 1944, PCF, France Libérée, ADG, AN.

⁶⁵ “La Délégation du Comite Central du PCF en Afrique du Nord à Monsieur le General de Gaulle,” February 26, 1944, PCF, France Libérée, ADG, AN.

⁶⁶ “Le Comite Central du PCF à Messieurs les membres du CFLN,” March 1944, PCF, France Libérée, ADG, AN.

⁶⁷ “La Délégation du Comite Central du PCF,” February 26, 1944.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ “Note,” February 15, 1944, Politique Internationale, Dossier 1, ADG, AN.

⁷⁰ “Massigli à MAE,” October 6, 1944, Dossier 51, P16879, Europe/URSS, MAE; “Activité russes en France,” November 27, 1944, Dossier 73, Europe/URSS, MAE.

⁷¹ “Note,” February 15, 1944.

⁷² Ibid. For more on de Gaulle’s conception of Franco-Soviet policy in this period, see Georges-Henri Soutou, “General de Gaulle and the Soviet Union,” in The Soviet Union and Europe in the Cold War, 1943-53, eds. Francesca Gori and Silvio Pons (London: MacMillan Press, 1996). Soutou argues that de Gaulle was more aware of a Soviet threat than has been claimed. Even while de Gaulle sought a pact to control Germany, he also sought to balance Soviet power with a Western bloc. He was also well aware of the ideological dimensions of a global conflict and the problem of the PCF in Franco-Soviet relations.

⁷³ ‘Note pour M. le Commandant Pelabon,” July 11, 1944, PCF, France Libérée, ADG, AN.

⁷⁴ Luguet, ‘Notes.’

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ As Brogi argues in A Question of Self Esteem.

⁷⁷ “M. Hoppenot à M. Bidault,” December 20, 1944, in Documents Diplomatiques Français 1944, No. 243. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1996), 468.

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Koren, “Franco-American Relations.”

⁸⁰ Brogi, A Question of Self-Esteem, 17.

⁸¹ Ambrose, Ike’s Spies, 107.