Les services secrets gaullistes à l'épreuve de la politique (1940-1947)

Abstract

The Politicization of French Intelligence Services: From Military to Political Control (1940-1947) Sébastien Laurent The exceptional military and political events due to the World War II have deeply modified the conditions under which the French intelligence services acted beforehand. The strict partition between military and political fields at the time of the third Republic has to be considered ail over again. The purpose of this article is to analyse the reasons of this drastic upheaval consisting in the intelligence services escaping from the military command. In London, then in Algiers there was a series of conflicts between the inner French Resistance and the de Gaulle's attendants, leading to the foundation of the SDECE (Service de documentation exterieure et de contre-espionnage). Hereafter the intelligence services, linked since 1945 to those of the Presidence du conseil became the aims of hard political struggles in parliamentary circles as in the press of the new regime. The "Passy affair" which occurred in 1946 appeared as a typical example of the new balanced political and journalistic influences from which since then, the secret officers could not escape.