Editors in several countries expressed great interest in publishing the manuscript … providing that the "foreign bits" could be reduced and the book re-focused on their respective countries.
The world moved on, and the events described below, hot news when the book was completed, became old history. Things would have remained like that had I not recently come across the ISGP website run by Joel van der Reijden [1] - as far as I can see, the only serious investigation of the Cercle Pinay since the original articles by Robin Ramsay and myself in the Lobster twenty years ago. In appreciation of Joel's efforts, I am happy to dust off the manuscript again and add it to his impressive research in the hope that the information contained here will serve those who wish to continue the investigation.
In revisiting the manuscript in , I have not integrated print sources published after the book was last revised in , a mammoth task and a superfluous one in the light of the ISGP website. The most recent print source integrated here is therefore Alan Clark's diaries, published in ; a list of unintegrated print sources can be found at the beginning of the Bibliography.
I have however expanded the biographical information on some individuals mentioned in the original manuscript, taking further details from the Web, recent press reports and the ISGP site. Apart from that, I have not integrated Joel van der Reijden's research which stands on its own; this investigation should therefore be read in conjunction with his and, of course, with Crozier's memoirs.
One of the paradoxes of modern political journalism is its inherent cultural isolation. Whilst no-one would deny that the major political developments in a given country may owe much to international forces, the investigation of political processes has remained overwhelmingly confined within national boundaries.
This is partly due to the linguistic problems, specialist knowledge and additional burden involved in researching foreign politics; however, this cultural isolation is also compounded by a vague and usually unexpressed opinion that the connections of a foreign Conservative MP cannot be of great import to a better understanding of the murkier side of politics at home in one's own country.
Yet it is clear that no country is an island. This is nowhere more true than in the field of parapolitics, the networks of unofficial power that, usually via serving or retired friends in the world's major intelligence and security services, exert greater influence than is generally realized on national political life. This is no isolated example; throughout the s the Cercle Pinay complex was active in similar ways in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium.
In the latter three countries, the Cercle complex also had close links to those waging a strategy of tension to support a right-wing coup, the latest example of which was the strategy of tension which killed 32 people in Belgium from to The Cercle Pinay itself is an informal but confidential strategic talking-shop consisting of a core of "regulars" who invite occasional guests to Cercle meetings and who are assisted by a range of associates in many nationally-based groups.
In order to make the complexities of the Right in several European countries understandable to readers, I have focused on the personnel links within and between the national groups forming part of the Cercle Pinay complex. As one of the tendencies of such groups is for their members to "play musical chairs", changing place frequently on the raft of names sponsoring an organization, a personnel-based research approach can give rise to the danger of over-estimating the ties that link some characters or organisations.
Sharing a Board membership with someone does not necessarily imply intimate knowledge of the other's various activities. The fragmentary nature of the information available does not allow us to draw definite conclusions about to what extent a particular group or person was aware of Cercle operations, particularly of those run by several of the Cercle "regulars" with intelligence experience who would later form a private covert intelligence service, the 6I, within the Cercle complex.
Nonetheless, a stalwart multi-functionary on the Boards of several groups linked to the Cercle can be presumed to have some deeper involvement beyond just lending his name to the cause. This study can only be a beginning; a closer look at some of those involved at national level could shed more light on the significance of the Cercle complex. The only point of certainty beyond the information given here is that the Cercle merits further investigation.
Finally, this book is dedicated to the small community of unpaid parapolitics researchers who have done much to uncover the truth that lies behind the history of the 20th century. Two in particular deserve thanks for the help and encouragement they have given me in compiling the information given here: Robin Ramsay of the Lobsterand Jeffrey M. We stock a few latest issues to order, enabling you to buy single issues of magazines online without subscription.
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