Power and Glory

France’s Secret Wars with Britain and America, 1945-2018

Since the Second World War, France has pursued a clandestine international rivalry with Great Britain and, to a lesser extent, the United States. It has sometimes been jealous and resentful of the power and status of the English-speaking world, genuinely fearing that rivals will steal or undermine her colonial possessions or influence. At the same time, France has needed power and influence to ward off other threats, such as communism and nationalism.

This extraordinary book tells the story of that curious tension through the prism of the 'secret wars' that France has fought against, and sometimes alongside, her two Anglo-Saxon competitors since 1945.

Drawing on material from original archive sources and from interviews with former French, British and American diplomats and officials, and foreign policy experts and analysts in Paris, London and Washington, this book reveals the surprising level of assistance Mitterrand's government gave to the Argentines during the Falklands War. It shows the activities of British spies against French rule in Madagascar in the 1940s, describes the proxy war between Britain and France in Nigeria in the late 1960s, and reveals the secret collaboration between France and the United States to keep Indochina out of communist hands in 1954 - including the story of the American airman who died fighting for France.