Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage
Encyclopedia
The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (English: External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service, SDECE) was France's external intelligence agency
from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure
(DGSE). It should not be confused with the Deuxième Bureau
which was intended to pursue purely military intelligence.
Under the Fourth Republic
the SDECE was subordinated to the Council President. From the onset of the Fifth Republic
and until 1962, it was subordinate to Prime Minister Michel Debré
and its resources largely dedicated to the Algerian War. Following the Mehdi Ben Barka
affair, General Charles de Gaulle
subordinated the service to the Ministry of Defence, and the service was gradually militarized.
Its final director was Alexandre de Marenches
.
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 when it was replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure
Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure
The General Directorate for External Security is France's external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DCRI in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence...
(DGSE). It should not be confused with the Deuxième Bureau
Deuxième Bureau
The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany...
which was intended to pursue purely military intelligence.
Under the Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
the SDECE was subordinated to the Council President. From the onset of the Fifth Republic
French Fifth Republic
The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...
and until 1962, it was subordinate to Prime Minister Michel Debré
Michel Debré
Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was a French Gaullist politician. He is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France, and was the first Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic...
and its resources largely dedicated to the Algerian War. Following the Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan politician, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference...
affair, General Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
subordinated the service to the Ministry of Defence, and the service was gradually militarized.
Its final director was Alexandre de Marenches
Alexandre de Marenches
Count Alexandre de Marenches was a French military officer.During the Second World War, Count de Marenches was aide de camp to General Juin...
.
Directors of the SDECE
- André DewavrinAndré DewavrinAndre Dewavrin was a French officer who served with Free French Forces intelligence services during World War II.He was born in Paris, the son of a businessman...
alias "Colonel Passy", (DGER/SDECE), from April 19, 1945 to April 1946 - Henri-Alexis Ribiere, from April 1946 to January 1951
- Pierre Boursicot, from January 1951 to September 1957
- General Paul Grossin, from 1957 to 1962
- General Paul Jacquier, from 1962 to 1966
- General Eugène Guibaud, from 1966 to 1970
- Alexandre de MarenchesAlexandre de MarenchesCount Alexandre de Marenches was a French military officer.During the Second World War, Count de Marenches was aide de camp to General Juin...
, from November 6, 1970 to June 12, 1981 - Pierre Marion (SDECE/DGSE), from June 17, 1981 to November 10, 1982
Known operations
- Guerrilla intelligence-gathering and operations with montagnard partisanPartisan (military)A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
s during the First Indochina WarFirst Indochina WarThe First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
carried out by the Groupe de Commandos Mixtes AéroportésGroupement de Commandos Mixtes AéroportésThe Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés commonly referred as just GCMA, was the "Action Service" of the SDECE French counter-intelligence service active during the Cold War...
(GCMA). - Operation Condor (1954)Operation Condor (1954)Operation Condor a.k.a. Operation D was the name of the French intelligence agency SDECE's special service GCMA secret operation against the Viet Minh supply column...
of Colonel Jean SassiJean SassiJean Sassi was a French Army colonel and intelligence service officer, former "Jedburgh" of France and Far East. Commando chief of the SDECE's 11th Shock Parachutist Regiment...
at Dien Bien PhuDien Bien PhuĐiện Biên Phủ is a city in northwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Dien Bien province, and is known for the events there during the First Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, during which the region was a breadbasket for the Việt Minh.-Population:...
April 30, 1954. - Operations interdicting the supply of weapons to the National Liberation FrontNational Liberation Front (Algeria)The National Liberation Front is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.- Anticolonial struggle :...
(FLN) and its couriers in Europe (the « porteurs de valises », activists supporting Algerian independence) during the Algerian War. - Efforts to obtain control of Nigerian oil production in 1968 in association with BiafraBiafraBiafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...
n separatists. - Reporting the Yom Kippur WarYom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...
in October 1973 (it was the first Western intelligence service to do so.) - Reporting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.
- Supporting the coup d'état against Emperor Jean-Bédel BokassaJean-Bédel BokassaJean-Bédel Bokassa , a military officer, was the head of state of the Central African Republic and its successor state, the Central African Empire, from his coup d'état on 1 January 1966 until 20 September 1979...
of the Central African RepublicCentral African RepublicThe Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
in 1979 (Operation Barracuda) and installing a pro-French government. - Efforts in 1977 and August 1980 to subvert colonel Moammar Qadafi.
- Support of QuébécoisQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
separatist movements by agents of the SDECE as part of operation « Assistance et cooperation technique » or « Opération Ascot». - Assassination of CameroonCameroonCameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
ian MarxistMarxismMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
leader Félix-Roland MoumiéFélix-Roland MoumiéFélix-Roland Moumié was a Cameroonian leader, assassinated in Geneva on 3 November 1960 by the SDECE with thallium. Félix-Roland Moumié succeeded Ruben Um Nyobe, who was killed in September 1958, as leader of the Union des Populations du Cameroun .- See also :*Colonialism and...
in GenevaGenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
in 1960. - According to Alfred McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast AsiaThe Politics of Heroin in Southeast AsiaThe Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is a major, nonfiction book on heroin trafficking—specifically in Southeast Asia from before World War II up to the Vietnam War. Published in 1972, the book was the product of eighteen months of research and at least one trip to Laos by Alfred W...
(1972), the SDECE financed all of its covert operations, during the Indochina WarFirst Indochina WarThe First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
, from its control of the Indochina drug trade (see also French ConnectionFrench ConnectionThe French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Turkey to France and then to the United States. The operation reached its peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it provided the vast majority of the illicit heroin used in the United States...
)
Known or supposed agents
- Jean-Charles MarchianiJean-Charles MarchianiJean-Charles Marchiani, is a French prefect and politician. He is also a former officer of the French external intelligence agency .Jean-Charles Marchiani is a counter-terrorism expert, especially focused on Islamic fundamentalism...
, with SDECE from 1960 to 1970 - Vladimir VolkoffVladimir VolkoffVladimir Volkoff , was a French writer of Russian extraction. He produced both literary works for adults and spy novels for young readers under the pseudonym Lieutenant X. Volkoff is sometimes considered the French Cold War writer par excellence...
, intelligence officer during the Algerian War - Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli
- Colonel René Bertrand, alias Beaumont
- Colonel Nicolas Fourcaud
- Colonel Marcel Leroy, alias Leroy-Finville
- Colonel Paul Ferrer, alias Fournier
- Colonel Marcel Mercier, lpart of the Red Hand terrorist group
- Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard Nut, chef de mission, killed on assignment February 15, 1983
- Major Boatham, alias Beaumont
See also
- Civic Action ServiceService d'Action CiviqueThe SAC , officially created in January 1960, was a Gaullist militia founded by Jacques Foccart, Charles de Gaulle's chief adviser for African matters, and Pierre Debizet, a former Resistant and official director of the group...
- Groupement de Commandos Mixtes AéroportésGroupement de Commandos Mixtes AéroportésThe Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés commonly referred as just GCMA, was the "Action Service" of the SDECE French counter-intelligence service active during the Cold War...