Contesting France: Intelligence and US Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War

289 Pages·2023·1.416 MB·English

by  Susan McCall Perlman

Contesting France
Contesting France reveals the untold role of intelligence in shaping
American perceptions of and policy toward France between 1944 and
1947, a critical period of the early Cold War when many feared that
Frenchcommunistswerepoisedtoseizepower.Indoingso,itexposes
the prevailing narrative of French unreliability, weakness, and com-
munist intrigue apparent in diplomatic dispatches and intelligence
reports sent to the White House as both overblown and deeply
contested.Likewise,itshowsthatlocalpoliticalfactions,Frenchintelli-
gence and government officials, colonial officers, and various trans-
national actors in imperial outposts and in the metropole sought
access to US intelligence officials in a deliberate effort to shape US
policyfortheirownpoliticalpostwaragendas.Usingextensivearchival
researchintheUnitedStatesandFrance,SusanMcCallPerlmansheds
new light on the nexus between intelligence and policymaking in the
immediatepostwarera.
Susan McCall Perlman is Professor of History and Intelligence Studies
attheNationalIntelligenceUniversity.ShehaspublishedwidelyonUS
foreignrelationsandintelligenceandisthe2020recipientoftheRobert
BelandExcellenceinTeachingAward.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN US FOREIGN RELATIONS
Editedby
PaulThomasChamberlin,ColumbiaUniversity
Lien-HangT.Nguyen,ColumbiaUniversity
This series showcases cutting-edge scholarship in US foreign relations that employs
dynamic new methodological approaches and archives from the colonial era to the
present. The series will be guided by the ethos of transnationalism, focusing on the
historyofAmericanforeignrelationsinaglobalcontextratherthanprivilegingtheUS
asthedominantactorontheworldstage.
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AaronDonaghy,TheSecondColdWar:Carter,Reagan,andthePoliticsof
ForeignPolicy
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1975–1995
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MichaelE.Neagle,America’sForgottenColony:Cuba’sIsleofPines
ElisabethLeake,TheDefiantBorder:TheAfghan–PakistanBorderlandsinthe
EraofDecolonization,1936–1965
TuongVu,Vietnam’sCommunistRevolution:ThePowerandLimitsofIdeology
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contesting France
Intelligence and US Foreign Policy in the
Early Cold War
SUSAN MCCALL PERLMAN
NationalIntelligenceUniversity
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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©SusanMcCallPerlman2023
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Contents
Acknowledgments pageix
List of Abbreviations in Text xi
List of Abbreviations in Notes xiii
Introduction 1
1 Liberation 17
2 Civil War 49
3 Restoration 80
4 March to Power 110
5 L’Événement 147
Conclusion: How IntelligenceBecomes Policy 192
Notes 205
Bibliography 249
Index 263
vii
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Acknowledgments
The writing of history is a solitary task but one that requires a commu-
nity. I would like to thank the many who have undertaken this journey
with meandwho havebeen critical to its successful completion.
I have the deepest gratitude for the librarians and archivists who
enabled my research. In Washington, DC, they include the marvelous
library staff of Bender Library at American University and the excellent
archival staffs at the Library of Congress and the National Archives in
CollegePark.OutsideWashington,DC,thearchivistsattheUniversityof
LouisianaatLafayetteandClemsonUniversitywereespeciallyaccommo-
datingofmyquestforinsightintothelivesofJeffersonCafferyandJames
Byrnes. Likewise, the archivists of the Truman Library in Independence,
Missouri,wereattentiveandvaluablecollaborators.InFrance,I’dliketo
express my sincerest thanks to the superb archival staffs at the National
Archives at Pierrefitte and the Foreign Ministry Archives at La
Courneuve; they could not have been more welcoming or helpful.
Thank you, too, to Cambridge University Press and series editors Paul
Chamberlain and Lien-Hang Nguyen for agreeing to publish this book,
and to editor Cecelia Cancellaro for her kind, patient, and expert shep-
herding of this project to completion.
This study has benefited from the generous support of numerous
American University research grants, awards, and fellowships; I am also
grateful to the Truman Library and to the Society for Historians of
American Foreign Relations for financing research, travel, and seminars.
Iamlikewiseobligedtothejournals–ColdWarHistoryandIntelligence
and National Security – that published some of my work related to
this book.
ix
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