Abstract
In the France of the 1950s, Jean-Paul David and the famous poster, “La colombe qui fait boum” (“The dove that goes boom”) ensured the notoriety of the French anti-communist organization Paix et liberté. Linked with similar organizations across Western Europe via the Comité européen Paix et liberté, the network was rechristened the Comité international d’action sociale (CIAS) in 1956. Throughout the decade it participated in American psychological warfare campaigns and the mobilization of Europeans for the anti-communist cause, mixing covert actions with open propaganda.1
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Notes
Eric Duhamel, “Jean-Paul David et le mouvement Paix et Liberté, un anticommunisme radical”, in Jean Delmas and Kessler (eds), Renseignement et propagande pendant la guerre froide, 1947–1953 (Brussels: Éditions Complexe, 1999). For a detailed history see Bernard Ludwig, “Anticommunisme et guerre psychologique en République fédérale d’Allemagne et en Europe (1950–56). Démocratie, diplomatie et réseaux transnationaux”, PhD dissertation, Université Paris 1 — Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2011.
Scott Lucas, Freedom’s War: The US Crusade against the Soviet Union, 1945–56 (Manchester University Press, 1999);
Giles Scott-Smith and Hans Krabbendam (eds), The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe 1945–1960 (London: Frank Cass, 2003);
Helen Laville and Hugh Wilford (eds), The US Government, Citizen Groups and the Cold War. The State-Private Network (London: Routledge, 2006).
On Gladio see Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe (London: Frank Cass, 2005); Leopoldo Nuti and Olav Riste, special issue of Journal of Strategic Studies on Stay Behind, 30 (2007).
Mathias Friedel, Der Volksbund für Frieden und Freiheit (VFF). Eine Teiluntersuchung über westdeutsche antikommunistische Propaganda im Kalten Krieg und deren Wurzeln im Nationalsozialismus (St Augustin: Gardez! Verlag, 2001);
Klaus Körner, “Die rote Gefahr”. Antikommunistische Propaganda in der Bundesrepublik 1950–2000 (Hamburg: Konkret Literatur Verlag, 2003);
Bernard Ludwig, “La propagande anticommuniste en Allemagne fédérale. Le ‘VFF’ pendant allemand de ‘Paix et Liberté’ ”, Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’Histoire 80 (2003), pp. 33–42.
Stefan Creuzberger, Kampf für die Einheit. Das gesamtdeutsche Ministerium und die politische Kultur des Kalten Krieges 1949–1969 (Düsseldorf: Droste, 2008).
Klaus Körner, “Von der antibolschewistischen zur antisowjetischen Propaganda, Dr. Eberhard Taubert”, in Arnold Sywottek (ed.), Der Kalte Krieg — Vorspiel zum Frieden? (Münster: LIT-Verlag, 1994), pp. 54–68.
Jean-Louis Panné, “Boris Souvarine”, in Jean Maîtron and Claude Pennetier (eds), Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier, mouvement social (CD-Rom) (Paris: Éditions de l’Atelier, 2006).
Pierre Rigoulot, Georges Albertini: socialiste, collaborateur, gaulliste (Paris: Perrin, 2012).
Lorna Waddington, “The Anti-Komintern and Nazi Anti-Bolshevik Propaganda in the 1930s”, Journal of Contemporary History 42 (2007), pp. 573–94;
Michel Caillat et al., “Une source inédite de l’histoire de l’anticommunisme: les archives de l’Entente internationale anticommuniste (EIA) de Théodore Aubert (1924–1950)”, Matériaux pour l’Histoire de notre temps 73 (2004), pp. 25–31;
Stéphanie Roulin, Un credo anticommuniste. La commission Pro Deo de l’Entente internationale communiste ou la dimension religieuse d’un combat politique (Lausanne: Antipodes, 2010).
See Julien Sansonnens, Marc-Edmond Chantre et le Comité suisse d’action civique (Lausanne: Editions de l’Aire, 2012). I am grateful to Luc van Dongen for this information.
Memorandum of Conversation Giulio de Marzio/William E. Knight, 22 March 1952, top secret, 765.00/3–2252, CDF 1950–54, RG 59, NA; Maria Eleonora Guasconi, L’altra faccia della medaglia. Guerra psicologica e diplomazia sindacale nelle relazioni Italia-Stati Uniti durante la prima fase della guerra fredda (1947–1955) (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 1999);
Gianni Flamini, I pretoriani di Pace e libertà. Storie di guerra fredda in Italia (Roma: Editori riuniti, 2001).
VFF report, 18 May 1951, B 137, vol. 2607, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz (hereafter BA); Rudy van Doorslaer and Etienne Verhoeyen, L’Assassinat de Julien Lahaut (Bruxelles: La Renaissance du Livre, 2010 [1987]).
See Paul Koedijk, “De Koude Burgeroorlog in Nederland”, Vrij Nederland (18 July 1992), pp. 24–32; Paul Koedijk, “Van ‘Vrede en Vrijheid’ tot ‘Volk en Verdediging’: veranderingen in anticommunistische psychologische oorlogvoering in Nederland, 1950–1965”, in Ben Schoenmaker and J.A.M.M. Janssen (eds), In de schaduw van de Muur (The Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1997), pp. 57–81;
Giles Scott-Smith, Networks of Empire: The US State Department’s Foreign Leader Program in the Netherlands, France, and Britain 1950–70 (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2008).
Mario del Pero, L’alleato scomodo. Gli USA e la DC negli anni del centrismo (1948–1955) (Rome: Carocci, 2001);
Tullio Contino, L’operazione Pace e libertà di Edgardo Sogno: una pagina dimenticata della storia politica italiana: 1953–1958 (Collegno: R. Chiaramonte, 2004).
The documents proving this remain classified, but there are allusions and statements that attest to it in many documents held in German and American archives. See Körner, “Von der antibolschewistischen”; Dr Ewert Freiherr von Dellingshausen, Im Bogen der Zeit. Tei II: Aufgaben im Bundesministerium für gesamtdeutsche Fragen, Bonn, 1984/1985, N 1515, vol. 2, BA; note [CIA] for Dr Otto Lenz, State Secretary of the Chancery, Erklärung über die Haltung gegenüber Widerstandsgruppen [14 October 1952], secret, B 137, vol. 16428, BA; Memorandum of Conversation De Marzio/Knight, 22 March 1952, top secret, 765.00/3–2252 and Dispatch No. 1074, US Embassy, The Hague (W. J. Convery Egan) to Department of State, 23 March 1953, confidential, 756.001/3–2353, CDF 1950–54, RG 59, NA.
Pacifius, Die trojanische Taube. Kommunistische Friedenspropaganda ohne Maske (Gelsenkirchen: Ruhr-Verlag, 1950).
Bernard Ludwig, “Guerre psychologique et propagande anticommuniste: espoirs et illusions d’une ‘communauté atlantique’ (1948–1954)”, in Valérie Aubourg, Gérard Bossuat and Giles Scott-Smith (eds), European Community, Atlantic Community? (Paris: Soleb, 2008), pp. 416–34.
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Ludwig, B. (2014). Paix et liberté: A Transnational Anti-Communist Network. In: van Dongen, L., Roulin, S., Scott-Smith, G. (eds) Transnational Anti-Communism and the Cold War. The Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388803_6
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