“Eric Vidaud is a civilian”, let us know one of his former brothers in arms. Yesterday, the fifty-year-old headed French military intelligence, with the rank of general. This Friday, April 1, and it’s not a fish, he is no longer part of the executives of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Eric Vidaud was unceremoniously ousted from his post and he refused any reclassification, even if it meant never obtaining his fifth star. Officially, his dismissal has everything to do with the failure of French intelligence on the Ukrainian situation. Unofficially, the senior officer also pays for an incompatibility of temper with the Chief of Defense Staff as well as… the rivalries of his service with the DGSE.
The staff of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) learned this Wednesday by an internal email, twenty-four hours after the person concerned. The missive stunned all the agents because it is exceptional, even unprecedented, that a head in such a high position jumps in the middle of a conflict. “I can confirm that it is not frequent”, euphemistically General Christophe Gomart, director of military intelligence between 2013 and 2017. In addition, Eric Vidaud had held this position for only seven months. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have sealed its fate. “The Americans said that the Russians were going to attack, they were right. Our services rather thought that the conquest of Ukraine would have a monstrous cost and that the Russians had other options”, admitted General Thierry Burkhard, chief of army staff, in The worldMarch 6. A statement that had already surprised the military community as it is contrary to custom that the number one in the army frontally criticizes its services.
The limitations of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM) in terms of intelligence analysis are known. “I had created a strategy department, but it was dismantled after my departure,” recalls Christophe Gomart, who defends the quality of agents with regard to his relatively modest means. Created during the Gulf War to collect information on combat zones, this intelligence service does not have the strike force nor the flexibility of its big sister, the DGSE. It has 2,100 agents, against 7,000 for the General Directorate of External Security. Above all, its added value lies in its use of satellite technology, which allows it to know in near real time what is happening in territories at war, much less in its prospective analyses. “The DRM is in the pure factual. They know very well how to describe what they see, a little less well to analyze and interpret”, judge Vincent Crouzet, ex-collaborator of the DGSE, author of the novel Service action, target sierra (Robert Laffont).
It is however unlikely that this slightly less pronounced expertise of the DRM is at the origin of the departure of Eric Vidaud. On the one hand because it is a structural weakness, which does not depend on the identity of its leader. On the other hand because on the Russian file, the DRM was not the only service to be able to enlighten the political power. The DGSE, in particular, is more empowered to formulate an opinion on Vladimir Putin’s intentions, given the information it is supposed to be able to gather from sources close to Russia. Moreover, Christophe Gomart believes that the analytical error attributed to the French intelligence services should be qualified insofar as “as early as 2014, the American services announced an imminent invasion of Ukraine by the Russians”: “this time there, we were right”.
cool versus go-getter
In reality, the reasons for the eviction of General Vidaud would be different. Near opinion, an internal source at the Ministry of the Armed Forces evokes “insufficient briefings” and a “lack of mastery of the subjects”. “General Burkhard did not like Vidaud”, also tells us a military source, who saw a “misunderstanding” between a DRM boss “with a cool temperament” and a Chief of Staff of the Armies “much more go-getter and sharp”. “Vidaud is a calm person, a little self-satisfied”, describes one of his former regimental comrades.
General Vidaud would also have suffered from the very specific conditions of his arrival at the DRM. At the start of the summer of 2021, it was almost certain that the position would fall to General Bertrand Toujouse, then number two in the service, who had presented himself with great ambitions for the development of the DRM. Bernard Emié, the director of the DGSE, had then informed the President of the Republic of his hostility to this appointment, assures us a military source. A reluctance shared and supported by Laurent Nunez, the national intelligence coordinator. It was then an umpteenth episode of the latent rivalry between the two intelligence services, which had reached its climax at the time of Christophe Gomart, when the latter had put forward the idea of creating an “office of legends ” internal to the DRM, before proposing, in 2020, in Shadow Soldier: Inside the Special Forces, the abolition of the Action department of the DGSE and its integration into the Special Operations Command. “Bertrand Toujouse was also able to irritate by his temperament”, specifies a military source familiar with the matter.
Successor approaching
Emmanuel Macron had finally decided not to appoint Bertrand Toujouse, but rather Eric Vidaud. This ex-boss of Cos seemed less capped on intelligence, but was then presented as having the support of Jean-Yves Le Drian, with whom he had worked as head of his military cabinet, between 2012 and 2017. “But this n He was not a specialist in “ren” and Burkhard never looked favorably on his appointment”, tells us our source. In place of Eric Vidaud, the name of General Jacques de Montgros, currently posted in the Central African Republic and ex-adviser to the current minister Florence Parly, is put forward. “A brilliant man, an excellent profile”, estimates, laconic, a senior officer who rubbed shoulders with him.