Jacques Foccart

Jacques Foccart ( born August 31, 1913 in Ambrières, Marne, † March 19, 1997 in Paris) was a French politician.

Life

Early years

Foccart was born in Ambrières in Marne. His family owned land on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, where he spent the first six years of his life. During the Second World War he joined the Résistance, according to his biographer Jean Pierre to escape an indictment by the German occupation authorities, for whom he worked on the construction of the Atlantic Wall. He joined the Free French early under Charles de Gaulle and worked for its intelligence service under André Dewavrin aka Colonel Passy. After the war he co-founded the militia -like stewards Service d'action civique (SAC ). The latter was able to mobilize groups of muscle men against left-wing opponents as needed in tangible political struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. The organization was dissolved in 1982. He also founded the successful import - export company SAFINEX, who worked in Africa and in the Caribbean. In the 1950s he was Secretary General of de Gaulle's Rassemblement du peuple français Rally (RPF ). He should be de Gaulle had befriended on his return to power in May 1958 under his many contacts to the army and intelligence service.

Grey Matter

During the presidency of de Gaulle and Pompidou Foccart was regarded as the eminence grise of French Africa policy, or simply as Monsieur Afrique. France tried to maintain its political and economic influence in its former African colonies even after their formal independence. Foccarts usually discrete efforts have been directed against this part of the Eastern Bloc ambitions, but also - if not most - against competition from the United States. Foccart was the most important issues in African counselor its President, as well as all actual and suspected French activities in Africa were associated with his name. As an example we mention the bloody coup against the first democratic government of Togo in 1963. The relationship with de Gaulle was very close, just as this briefly flew to Baden -Baden during the May riots in 1968 and it should remain absolutely secret, he told employees: "Do not even talk about it with Foccart ".

Foccarts main tasks were

• To maintain close contacts with the new African heads of state and governments
• Compared with those of other European countries and the U.S. to protect the interests of French companies such as Elf Aquitaine
• Ensure that the inevitable coups in the countries of the Francophonie is not endangered the interests of France
• Ensure that the French government was not discredited by these activities
• In short, in French-speaking Africa to get some stability.

During a state visit to Gabon in 1972 President Pompidou was asked by a reporter if it was true that France was behind all these coups. His answer was short: " Ask Foccart ".

Last years

With the inauguration of the new president Valéry Giscard d' Estaing in 1974 Foccarts ended official role, he kept his contacts with African leaders but more upright. When Jacques Chirac in 1986 for two years Prime Minister under President François Mitterrand was, he took Foccart to himself. When Chirac became president in 1995 itself, Foccart could return to the Elysee Palace.

He wrote several books and in 1995 he published his memoirs. Foccart ill with Parkinson 's disease and died in 1997 in his Paris apartment.

Others

As the satirical magazine Le Canard enchaîné claimed in the early 1970s, Foccart have installed in De Gaulle's office whose term of office a bug, he went to court and won. He was awarded the symbolic compensation of one franc.