EX-AIDE ASSERTS DE GAULLE SUPPRESSED DATA ON SPIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200660028-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: April 21, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/1 ~'~ ~'--01350F~ADQ?~2~JQf~,60Q2,,8e,2r,
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I A former French intelligence officer, who ?is living in
;the United States because ho fears arrest iP he returns to
:France, has accused President de Gaulle of discounting a
warning from President Ken-' ~~~ 9Someone who "appeared"
nedy chat Soviet agents,' hadl .~ to be a member of the Cabinet
'penetrated French'security atI
the uppermost levels.
The former intelligence man,
Philippe Thyraud de'~Vosjoli,~
whase explotes are said to have'
formed the basis for Leon Uris's,
~~best-selling spy novel "Topaz,"1
;said information about Soviet
? +espionage in France had beer,
provided by a Soviet defector
.in 1961.
The defector, code-named
Martel, is described by Mr. de
,Vosjoli, whose memoirs will ap-
pear in the issue oP Life maga-
zine on sale tomorrow, as a
man with an "all but encyclo-
pedic knowledge oP the secret
workings of the French intelli-
igence service."
? Following the news last
~-weekend of the imminent pub-
; lication of Mr, de Vosjoli's
memoirs, President de Gaulle's
office dismissed allegations of
Soviet infiltration of high gov-
' ernment circles as completely
?~ ridiculous and grotesque.
In addition to the memoirs of
Mr. de Vosjoli, the Life issue
? also carries an article by John
Barry of the Sunday Times of
London, who spent three
months in an investigation of
the Martel affair,
Mr. Barry credits Martel with
'~ helping to flush out such spies
as H. A. R. Philby, the British
intelligence officer who even-
.. tually fled to the Soviet Union;
' Col. Stig Wennerstrom, of the
Swedish Defense Ministry; Wil-
liam John Christopher Vassal),
' ' a British Admiralty clerk who
confessed to spying for the So-
':~ viet Union; and a United States
Army sergeant, Jack E. Dunlap,,
' who killed himself after he was
interrogated.
? According to Mr. de Vosjoli,
Martel indicated that:
? Soviet agents had pene-
trated the French element of
,
ry o
s
e
nte-~ for French inaction in the race,
rior and the Foregin Ministry.. , ? ,
of the defectors disclosures.., . a
the North Atlantic Treaty Or?
ganization, the Ministry of Deg
Sense
the MMni
t
f th
I
' In additioti'to "possibly -sin-
' iarer forces;' Mr. de Vosjoli
? cites General de Gaulle's feel-
. ing that he had been misled?by
Mr. de Vosjo]i's reports on ~o-
vict missile activity in Cuba in
1962 into supporting the United
States against the Soviet Union
during the crisis late that year;
and the French leader's pique
at his exclusion from a meeting
between President Kennedy and
.Prime Minister Harold Macmil-
lan in Nassau on Dec. 21, 19G2.
It was Mr.~'de Vosjoli who
went to Cuba during the sum-
mer of 1962 to try to confirm
the presence .oP Soviet offen-
sive missiles.
Gave Data to C.LA.
Mr. de Vosjoli said he re-'
,ceived persuasive reports that
? there were, indeed,. offensive'
missiles in Cuba and had
passed this information along;
to the "? Central Intelligence'
Agency.
He said`'that, in the autumn)
of 19G2, he asked Gen. Paul''
Jacquier, a French intelligence'.
official, to account for inaction
in response to the Martel dis-
closures and vas told "that the
Government could not stand a
scandal at the time, with the
nation still just getting over
the giving up of Algeria."
Later, Mr. de Vosjoli said, his
superiors accused him of having
been duped by ,the United
States into believing that thg
Soviet missiles in Cuba were
offensive.
In 'December, 1962, he wrote,
he was' summoned to Paris and
told by General Jacquier that
France no longer regarded the
United ? States as an ally and
~: friend. The next ,day, he said,
he was instructed to asist in
the collection of intelligence
about the United States deploy-
ment of intercontinental ballis-
tic missiles when. he returned
to the United States.
Despite his protest that such
intelligence would be of use
only to the Soviet Union, he
was ordered to carry them out.
In August, 1963, Georges
Paques, the French press chief
of the Atlantic alliance, was
arrested in Paris is a spy, but
Mr. de Vosjoli said he was con-
vinced that Mr. Pacques v,~as
not alone.
Mr. de Vosjoli resigned Oct.
1$, 19G3, having served in the
United States since 1951. He is
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : C~c'1e4~~
.:~
had been identified as a Soviet
agent discussions within the,
State Ssecurity Committee)
(R.G.B,) . in the Soviet intelli-
? Bence service.
Q"A network with the code
name Sapphire, consisting of
.more than half a dozen French
,intelligence 'officers, all oP
fathom had been recruited by the
K.G.B., was operating" within
the French intelligence organi-
' zation.
QWithin the French intelli-
gence community, an apparatus,
was being established to ferret
' out American nuclear and sci-
entific advances, "eventually
in the Soviet interest." _
Mr. de Vosjoli wrote:
? "One of his early and most
disturbing assertions was that;.
French K.G.B. agents in NATO
headquarters in Paris were so'
strategically placed and so fac-
ile in their methods that they
could produce on two or three
days' demand any NATO docu?
ment Moscow asked for.'M: ~~.
' Kennedy TooIc Steps
Mr. de Vosjoli said that Pres-
Iident Kennedy had taken ex-
traordinary steps-employing a
personal courier with a.person-
al letter-to warn President de
Gaullo of tho Soviet penetra-
. bona and that Mr. Kennedy had
' offered cooperation in any ef-
fort by the French to corrobo-
rate the intelligence for them-
selvos. '
According to Mr. de. Vosjoli,
president de Gaulle dispatched
Gen: Jean-Louis de Rougemont,
the French intelligence chief, to
the United States to interrogate
Martel. After a few days, Mr.
de Vosjoli .wrote, General de
Rougemont was "shaken by the
appallingly detailed information
the man had on the innermost
workings of the French Gov-
. ernment and its security and
? intelligence systems:' .
' ?~ Mr. de Vosjoli implies that
several factors, including pos-
sibly the influenco of the Cab-I
inet officer close to President
de Gaulle,_ whose presence was