France, nest of Russian spies? For nearly a century, Moscow secret service are active in France. To their credit, many recruits in the highest spheres of the State, most of whom will never be discovered during their lifetime. In many cases, doubt is permitted. Back in three episodes on three eras and three emblematic cases, with new elements.
EPISODE 1 – Pierre Cot, minister and “agent of influence”?
© / The Express
Is the journalist Paul-Marie de La Gorce Argus? The assertion, encrypted, is explosive. It stems from the revelations of three former leaders of the Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST), in The DST on the Cold War front (Mareuil Editions), published in October 2022. Jean-François Clair, Michel Guérin and Raymond Nart write that “Argus could identify with Paul-Marie de La Gorce”. Argus refers to a code name used by the KGB during the Cold War, about a French spy in the Soviet secret service. It was Vassili Mitrokhine, a former KGB archivist who moved to the United Kingdom, who unveiled it in 1999 in The KGB against the West 1917-1991: The Mitrokhin Archives (Fayard), book co-written with the English historian Christopher Andrew.
From 1972 to 1984, Lieutenant-Colonel Mitrokhin copied all the KGB documents he had to process – and there were many of them. When the USSR fell, he delivered his treasure to London. Its contents have been deemed authentic by Western secret services. About Argus, Mitrokhine and Andrew write that he is a “journalist”, “close to Pierre Messmer”, Prime Minister from 1972 to 1974. “According to reports from the residence in Paris, he had regular meetings with the head of government during the campaign for the legislative elections of March 1973, and continued to advise him thereafter”, report the authors.
Until then, the robot portrait, precise, corresponds to Paul-Marie de La Gorce. Born in 1928, he was a freelance journalist for France-Observateur and L’Express in the 1950s and 1960s. Then, in the wake of his friend Emmanuel d’Astier de la Vigerie, he got involved in the Union des Democrats for the Fifth Republic (UDR), the Gaullist movement, of which he was a member of the political bureau from 1967, then a member of the nomination committee for the June 1968 legislative elections. De Gaulle between two worlds (Fayard), published in 1964, he met the President of the Republic several times. From 1967 to 1968, he was adviser to Interior Minister Christian Fouchet. In this position, de la Gorce manipulated secret documents and notably made the link between General Intelligence and the political world, particularly during May 68, as he himself told in 2004 to historians Bernard Lachaise and Sabrina Tricaud, authors of Georges Pompidou and May 68. In 1969, he became chief of staff to Léo Hamon, government spokesman, then he joined the cabinet of Pierre Messmer in Matignon, as a technical adviser, in 1972. At that time, he was also the first president of Nouvelle Frontier, a club of left-wing Gaullists filled with enarques, whom he describes to the historian Jérôme Pozzi as a “fifth Gaullist column at the heart of ministerial cabinets”. It is therefore a man of influence, implanted in the depths of the Gaullist state. According to Mitrokhine’s documents, “Argus told Messmer that Michel Poniatowski, Secretary General of the Independent Republicans, and Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber had secretly agreed to undermine the positions of the UDR candidates.”
Paid agent
Clearly, at the request of the KGB, Argus is trying to sow discord within the government right, by explaining to the leader of the majority that the Giscardians and the reformers, represented by the founder of L’Express, are plotting against the Gaullists. “On instructions from the KGB, Argus spread similar misleading information in the press,” report Mitrokhine and Andrew again. It should be noted that Argus is a paid spy, since he receives, according to the copied documents, 2,000 francs of exceptional bonus from the KGB each year, in 1973, 1974 and 1975. That is to say the equivalent of 5 200 euros from 2022. Only the ten most important agents of the French KGB residence are entitled to this additional gratuity.
If Paul-Marie de La Gorce is Argus, it is therefore an exceptional catch for the KGB. The journalist-advisor continues his brilliant career. From 1977 to 1984, he was a columnist at the Figarobefore becoming head of the foreign service of Radio France, from 1985 to 1987. Between 1989 and 1995, he was director of the review National Defense, in which he works daily with generals of the French army. In The DST on the Cold War front, Clair, Guérin and Nart note that “the DST had long held him to be an agent of influence”. In question, his “anti-American” positions. The columnist was a regular in indictments against NATO, particularly in The diplomatic world.
“Reserved opinion”
The file devoted to Paul-Marie de La Gorce within the Paris police headquarters, which L’Express was able to consult, shows two things. The first is that the journalist had indeed drawn the attention of the intelligence service of the prefecture, General Intelligence, and the security service attached to the Ministry of the Armed Forces. A first report in his name took place on October 12, 1954, because of his participation, the previous year, in the World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest, a large American anti-imperialism gathering financed by the USSR. On May 29, 1965, the prefect of police also issued a “reserved opinion”, that is to say unfavorable, to his appointment as Knight of the Order of Merit. On this occasion, the civil servants noted that the journalist was the author of the article “Les nouvelles hors-la-loi”, published in L’Express on April 21, 1960, evoking, in the words of the police officers, “the attitude of certain young French people faced with the Algerian problem” and which led to the seizure of the newspaper.
The second observation is that the intelligence services did not have in their hands, if we believe these archives, any tangible element allowing to doubt the probity of Paul-Marie de La Gorce. The evolution of the police gaze also shows the importance that the journalist is gradually taking on in the Gaullist galaxy. On February 15, 1968, a new request was made in his name to be named to the Order of Merit. This time, the prefect of police expresses “no opposition”. In his file, his status as technical adviser to the Minister is underlined.
See you in the suburbs
In I couldn’t say anything (l’Archipel), published in 2018, Paul-Louis Voger (a pseudo), ex-executive of the DST, recounts… having investigated, at the end of the 1980s, Paul-Marie de La Gorce, whose articles were considered “a little too tendentious in favor of Soviet diplomacy”. He delivers unprecedented details. “What intrigued” the DST, he wrote, “was its contacts, not in full view, but very discreet and “conspiratorial” in the suburbs, with diplomats, – in fact KGB officers duly stamped”.
These suspicions never seem to have been escalated to political power. At the time of his death, on December 1, 2004, Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, wrote a tribute statement: “I knew Paul-Marie de La Gorce well. I knew the commitment of this fervent Gaullist and his passion for to defend a certain idea of France. He will remain as one of the most brilliant examples of the tradition of excellence in French journalism”.