AN, credits to perfect_shade, Sunny and Readhead for helping me revise this chapter.
1952, April 25th, Nanjing:
"I would like to propose a campaign where we encourage our citizens to voice their concerns." Zhang looked at his council. "We can not reform our country without knowing what is wrong, and while we have our reports from various governors and deputies, surely someone in the layers of bureaucracy would want to make something look better than it actually is. The policy of letting a thousand flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science."
"You want a repeat of the Hundred Schools of Thought era?" Luo raised an eyebrow. "That was a chaotic period."
"I think he's referring to how the scholars' discussions contributed significantly to influencing development in the rest of East Asia." Kang shrugged. "I'm more worried about how we would keep it under control so our government isn't undermined or worse, overthrown."
"Also, how do we assure people that there will be no repercussions for speaking out?" Li asked. "Otherwise it will just be more empty praise."
"That is why I am asking all of you for advice on this so it becomes a reality." Zhang responded.
'I love this idea because I'll have a list of all of the dissents who revealed themselves. Let a thousand flowers bloom so they can all be cut down. All that is needed is for people to enthusiastically pour out their criticisms and for me to overthrow Zhang and Li.' Kang very carefully didn't smile at that happy thought as he started providing suggestions to address Li's concerns.
1952, May 1st, Hamburg, at a restaurant:
After we placed our orders, Visha glanced out the window to see the group of people waving at us. Clearly, we had been recognized.
"Have you considered actively campaigning, like back in the day?" Visha asked.
"I'm content with running my talk show." I shrugged in reply. "Besides, President Paul is doing a fine job of repeatedly stepping on the landmine that is Caucasia, while I can sit back and watch ever more people turn against him. I'm surprised the Diet didn't impeach him over his attempted coverup of the nuclear accident."
"And experimenting with the E-3 orb? You were so hesitant when Dr. Schugel pushed the orbs onto you." Visha teased.
"I nearly died multiple times when I tested that cursed Type 95 orb back when I was like, what, 9 years old?! He wouldn't let me stop testing it!"
"Oh." Visha awkwardly looked away. "I'm sorry, I didn't know about that."
"I probably should have brought it up sooner instead of letting it fester, especially when we got that invitation letter from him. You are right about me having a hard time resisting the temptations of pushing magic to its limits." I sighed. "I suppose it's one of those situations that one dreads, while also being perversely excited about when it finally happens."
"Like when someone gives 5 kilograms of high grade chocolate as a gift but there's that concern about putting on weight?"
"You ate most of that!"
"But you were only nibbling away a little bit at a time per day!" Visha pouted. "I couldn't hold myself back with that."
We were suddenly interrupted by some loud cheers at another table over. I tapped my E-3 orb enclosed in my large purse to spin up a stealth listening spell, and an experimental translation spell that Dr. Schugel gave us a copy of, even though we were private citizens that technically shouldn't be handling Germania's magic technology secrets.
I might need to raise that particular concern with someone sooner rather than later. The Germanian government needed to be more thorough with operational security and handling state secrets, especially with communist spies trying to copy everything they could get their dirty hands on.
The translation spell struggled to process the loud exclamations, but from the snatches of conversation it successfully translated, I gathered that the people over at the other table were celebrating the success of a pro-Algerian political rally, staged to garner further international support for the Algerian rebels. There seemed to be two professors from Lothiern in attendance, as well as someone from the Allied Kingdom.
I don't know how I personally felt about that sort of political rallying. But, Germania allows free speech, and as long as the people gathered around the table and their compatriots at the rally weren't causing trouble for Germania herself, I didn't feel like it was my business to get involved. Especially since I refused to get sucked into a conflict in North Africa or the Middle East, even as a private citizen.
Suddenly, a man came up to our table.
"Good afternoon, frau Degurechaff, frau Serebryakov."
"Can I help you with something?" Visha asked as I quickly stopped the spell usage.
"Would the two of you have a few minutes for discussion regarding politics in the Middle East?"
"No." I replied at the same time that Visha said yes. The man had a confused look on his face until Visha motioned him to take a seat.
I quickly cast a voice spell to Visha, telling her that I wanted no part of this. Surprisingly, Visha insisted that we hear him out. Only mildly annoyed, I sat back and gestured for the man to start talking.
"You've probably heard of Izz al-Arab Nasser."
Ah yes, the hyper nationalist guy who seems to have a lot of parallels with the Legadonia Entente's previous nationalist government, the one that had kicked off the war with the Empire. Except Nasser seems to have one-upped it by picking a fight with both the Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic, as well as their puppet states bordering Aegyptus. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd heard of a leader who was this openly suicidal in his policy decisions.
For some reason, the yet-unnamed man had begun to turn pale.. How peculiar.
"I have." Visha replied, the hint of a question in her voice. "But what does that have to do with us?"
"He's a major fan of Tanya von Degurechaff, and would welcome a visit from the two of you."
"Mhm. One question; what does Mr. Nasser plan on accomplishing with his… brinkmanship?" Visha asked.
"He wants a Middle East that is ruled by its own people, not beholden to any foriegn powers, including the communists in Asia. We all saw what happened to Afghanistan."
"What made him take such an interest in me?" I raised an eyebrow.
"He was inspired by what you did to turn Germania around. From a shattered country whose fate seemed far outside of its control, to turning the tables on the Unified States, Allied Kingdom, and Francois Republic. Then stopping the Russy Federation from expanding towards it."
Visha was about to ask a follow-up question when the man abruptly slumped in his chair, as if he had passed out.
As I shot to my feet and rounded the table, intending to aid the collapsed man, Visha jumped up and turned to alert a nearby waiter, only to stop in her tracks.
"Tanya, we have a problem."
I suddenly realized that the nearby table full of celebrating advocates for Algeria, until recently so loud, had gone completely silent. Looking over, I saw that everyone at that table had likewise collapsed, and the few still conscious were clearly struggling to stay that way. My eyes swept across the restaurant; everywhere I looked, other patrons were experiencing similar problems, while the waitstaff helplessly stood by, clearly bewildered by what they were seeing."Visha," I snapped, "get help!"
Immediately, Visha spun up her flight spell and took off, crashing through one of the windows in her haste to get outside. I racked my brains as she left, trying to figure out how I could possibly provide first aid for all of these people, helped only by five poleaxed waiters and a busboy.
Elsewhere, in Berun:
Elya gave herself a small jolt of the ever reliable combined magical stimulant and painkiller as she struggled to stay awake and to suppress the headaches as she dealt with yet another mess in Aegyptus.
'Just need to make some finishing touches for my four puppet fringe political parties to give President Paul a hard time if he continues to try to ram bills through the Diet. And to gather up all of the troublesome politicians in those parties to later dispose of them when Tanya returns to power.' Elya thought to herself.
"Londonium and Parisee want us to join them in the trade sanctions on Aegyptus after Aegyptus blocked Albish reinforcements from leaving the harbor or airport that they arrived at." Dertinge slid forward a message that was signed by both the Albish and Frankish government to Paul "Also, Kazakh reported a buildup of Rus forces along their border and the Russy Confederation has asked them to sign a 'treaty of friendship'. Which we all know what it really means."
"Regarding the first matter, what should we do?" Paul looked at the map. "We'll discuss the Russy issue after we resolve this one. Do you think the Albish and the Franks are planning a joint military operation against Aegyptus? We know they have been arming and training Aegyptus's neighbors."
"They could end up relying on those neighbors as proxy forces for direct combat." Elya shrugged. "Easier to maintain public war support if you can minimize your own casualties."
"I'm concerned that Aegyptus may turn to the communists out of desperation."
"About that…" Elya's voice trailed off as everyone in the room looked at her.
Elya flipped through the notes in her book. "South Bharatian and Akinese intel agencies collaborated with us to confirm that North Bharat has received an order from Aegyptus for material, including tanks and aircraft. Yesterday, North Bharat had contacted the CSR to ask for guidance on 'special trade opportunities' with Aegyptus. We don't know what the CSR is thinking, as there have been no indications of a return message yet."
"We need to delay any potential war in Aegyptus for as long as possible." Adenaue sighed. "What is the response from the Unified States?"
"They're staying neutral in the conflict." Dertinge replied. "Which isn't surprising given their President, Robert A. Taft, has been staunchly isolationist the whole time."
"What if we make an announcement that we won't get involved so long as there are no indications of communism activities in Aegyptus?" Adenaue suggested. "That would signal deterrence to Aegyptus and the CSR, while reducing any anger from the Allied Kingdom or Francois Republic. It might buy us more time."
"Or, we could make a counteroffer to the Albish and the Franks." Paul clasped his hands. "We'll help them support their operation in Aegyptus and in return get support to relieve pressure on Kazakh. We can't allow the communists to have access to the potential hydrocarbon deposits in that region while Aegyptus is up in flames."
"Wouldn't such an offer just accelerate the path to war?" Adenaue spoke, not even bothering to hide his open concern.
"If the Albish and Franks, or their puppets at least, win the war quick enough," Paul retorted, "the Aegyptians wouldn't have time to sabotage the Suez Canal or their oil production."
Dertinge was about to raise his voice when the door suddenly opened and a harried looking Anna stormed in.
"I thought you were on a long overdue vacation?" Elya looked on with surprise.
"I was, until I got word of a mass poisoning event in Hamburg less than half an hour ago." Anna said between deep breaths from running to the meeting room.
"Okay, well, that's terrible, but couldn't that have been saved for a later report?" Elya asked before Anna cut her off.
"Tanya and Visha were also at the restaurant."
"Oh. Shit." Out of the corner of her eye, Elya noticed President Paul's face whiten, and very carefully avoided looking at the man. No need to give the bastard any hint of my suspicions. Not yet.
Somewhere in Caucasia:
The plan was straightforward. Provide overwatch support for the replacement of the now dead President Mzhavinidze to get to the capital. The idiots in the Germanian government actually thought the coup plotters would just settle for putting Mzhavinidze under house arrest, when they could just stop Mzhavinidze's loyalists from staging a counter-coup by simply shooting the man, removing the only thing uniting them.
But of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Or in this case, multiple enemies that all had an interest in killing the replacement and putting their own leader in power.
'And the backup plan of simply restarting the elections in the middle of this chaos to elect new legislative members and a president is a fool's dream.' Teyanen thought to himself as he tried to figure out which forces in the area were a direct threat to him and the replacement president, and which ones were shooting at someone else for the moment.
The helicopter carrying the VIP suddenly spun around erratically before regaining control, followed by four figures tumbling out of the side of the helicopter. A moment later, Tenyanen picked up a voice spell transmission from the BND agent aboard, a C-tier mage. "The security detail chief and his aide tried to assassinate the VIP. They didn't know we were mages."
"What about the pilot and co-pilot?" Teyanen asked, more out of morbid curiosity then anything else.
"My partner decided to err on the side of caution and dealt with them as well."
Teyanen rolled his eyes. Even President Mzhavinidze's handpicked security details proved to be unreliable. Then again, he really shouldn't be that surprised. They had only declared loyalty to a specific person, and that person was dead. Caucasia was now a free for all. The Germanian government should have realized the consequences of overthrowing a strongman who had made sure there were no other viable successors. Especially since they had already had that experience of trying to fill the previous Chancellor Degurechaff's shoes after she abruptly refused to continue staying in office.
'It's bullshit that the fighters on the ground have to deal with the politicians' mess. I wonder if this is how the Legadonian soldiers felt when their politicians plunged their unprepared country into a stupid, easily avoidable war?'
"Ground control intercept to 4th Germanian mage battalion. The Caucasian aircraft have violated our requirement for them to maintain the minimal distance from the convoy, over." A radio call broke in on Teyanen's musings.
"What is their bearing, Ground Control?" Teyanen radioed back via his orb. "Are they drifting towards the convoy, or did they suddenly change their flight path? Over"
"4th Battalion, they're flying straight towards the VIP's vehicle, directly from the north. Over."
Teyanen silently cursed. The bastards had a backup plan for the assassination. How did his mage battalion and their accompanying helicopters get stuck with the job of cleaning up all of this mess themselves?
"Ground Control, any words on our local air support?" Teyanen asked. "They can at least scare off the traitor pilots, yes? The enemy are still using propeller planes while we have jets. Our helicopters are configured for combat against mages and ground targets, not rogue aircraft. Over."
"Standby, 4th Battalion." The ground controller responded. Teyanen took the opportunity to bark orders at some of his mages to switch their focus from the ground to watching the air.
About half a minute passed and now Teyanen could see the planes closing on his position with their rocket pods.
Then the planes suddenly veered off.
"Ground controller? What's going on?" Teyanen asked, desperate for any update he could get.
Then he sensed a Caucasian flight spell in the distance. Likely a battalion of communist Caucasian mages. Strangely, he couldn't sense any of the signatures associated with Rus and Chinese mages known to be in the area. Maybe they were confident enough in training the local mages and equipping them with the knockoff Type 97s that they no longer felt the need to personally take the field.
"The Caucasian pilots that were on the intercept course with your VIP claimed that they had a navigation error and needed to return to base for refueling."
'They intend to let the communists and us kill each other first…'
"What about our air force?!" Teyanen broadcasted back.
"They will be here within 2 minutes."
Then he sensed it. The communist mages that were powering up their shields and weapons.
"Surrender the new Caucasian president," one of the communist mages broadcasted to Teyanen's battalion. "Or we will open fire."
As the communist mages neared, Teyanen and his battalion were alerted by one of the helicopters a moment before one of the heavily forested mountains erupted in anti-aircraft fire. While the Germanian mages were able to nimbly dodge the exploding shells and could rely on their shields to blunt the impact of shrapnel, the far less agile helicopters fared far worse.
Including the VIP helicopter.
Simultaneously, another mountain also spat fire and steel, but bizarrely, this one vented its spleen against the communist mages.
Teyanen picked up a radio transmission from the Caucasian officer commanding the anti-air units berating his men from the other mountain for firing on the wrong mages, before ordering the hapless fools to retreat.
"Return fire!" Teyanen ordered, and his mage battalion obeyed, hurling precisely placed explosive bullets at the locations of the anti-aircraft batteries like avenging angels. The communist mages surprisingly joined in, going to work on the anti-aircraft guns that fired on them from the other mountain.
Teyanen took the moment to fly down and check on the crashed and burning VIP helicopter, and saw two people with flickering shields crawl out of it.
"He's dead," one of the BND agents croaked.
1952, May 7th, Hambruck:
A week later, and I was still somewhat unnerved by the mass poisoning I'd barely dodged. Over a dozen of the other diners hadn't been so lucky; anybody who had taken a drink of water, or eaten anything made with water, had died or severely sickened. Apparently, someone wearing the uniform of the local water utility had installed a remote controlled tap and a poison supply into the water meter. As of yet, the police had yet to find the poisoner or establish why he had targeted the restaurant. I was just as helpless; all I could do was push the disturbing incident aside and carry on.
Visha stepped up to the door of the warehouse we'd come to visit and stepped briskly back to my side. A minute later the door creaked open, and Oetker peeked out around it.
"Good to see you two again!" He greeted us as he opened the door further and motioned us inside. "Come on in!"
We entered a room crammed full with mockups of mainframe components, schematics strewn across every available surface. Turing and a few assistants were clustered around a table, tinkering with a circuit board.
I looked over at the crates that were piled up everywhere. "I see you got the needed components?"
"Who did you contact?" Oetker asked. "Last week they gave us almost everything we needed and left without any explanation. Even the magnetic tape storage that International Business Computers started selling about a month ago over in the Unified States, and other assortments of solid state components."
"I did reach out to some of our contacts at the Usedom Island testing center." I shrugged my shoulders. "I was just asking about suppliers they sourced computer parts from and they asked me what it was for, so I told them about the chess machine. And gave them a copy of the wish list."
We chatted a bit more about what their plan was for the next month or two before bidding farewell. I didn't want to stick around too long to slow them down. As soon as we stepped outside, there was an eruption of an explosion in the distant harbor.
Visha immediately took flight.
"What are you doing?" I asked, still shocked by a second terrorism event in the same city.
"There has to be some survivors from that blast!" Visha shouted before taking off towards the harbor.
A few hours later:
I sat on the edge of the pier, looking out at the bombed ship that was sunk to the bottom of the shallow harbor with the firefighters still putting out the burning top side above the water.
Visha walked over and sat next to me.
"There are still many crew members onboard that are unaccounted for." Visha looked over at the group of survivors being treated.
"Maybe there might be enough to help the police or BND identify who attacked the ship." I then pointed at a section of the ship. "I took a swim around the ship as it was sinking. Someone planted two mines on the ship to rip open its hull. And that ship had something in its cargo hold to trigger secondary explosions and fire."
"How are you feeling, Tanya?" Visha said as she put a hand on my shoulder.
I hadn't thought about that initially, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm furious. I spent all of these years surviving the trenches, not starving after the end of the war, navigating messy domestic and international politics to save Germania and the rest of Europe from the Russy Federation, to checking the expansion of communism in Bharat, and so on, only to almost die at a restaurant of all the places with my loved one because someone had the genius idea of poisoning the water supply. This was a direct attack on Germanian peace and prosperity.
But as it tempting as it may seem, ripping up the civil liberties of Germanians in a hamfisted anti-terrorism effort would be the wrong way to go about it. Something tells me that would be exactly what Paul might try to do. Maybe even suspend the elections in the name of "national security".
I gripped my hands tightly before turning to Visha. "Whoever did this, I'm going to make sure they won't be able to pull off more of these brazen attacks so that people in this country can continue to live free and in prosperity."
"What's your plan for that?" Visha asked.
"I don't know yet. But I certainly don't trust President Paul to handle this well." I then grinned widely, while Visha seemed to look on with concern. "Do you still have the notes from the last time I went on a political campaign? I think it's time to brush off the dust on those."
1952, May 14th, Parisee:
Paul Gassier, Prime Minister of the Francois Republic, contemplated if he wanted to shoot André Vallon, his director of the SCE. Although first he would need to check if his personal revolver hadn't been rigged to blow up in his face.
The whole time the SCE had been hiding information from him about exactly what they were doing. He had thought the SCE was only conducting "dirty operations" overseas, not bringing them out onto the doorstep of Europe.
"We identified that cargo ship was being used by a Germanian arms dealer to smuggle weapons and ammunition to the Algerian rebels, and had been in talks with the Aegytians to also smuggle materiel to bypass the arms embargo." Vallon flatly said.
"So your most logical decision was to blow up a ship in the Germanian harbor instead of at least doing it out in the open ocean?!" Gassier roared.
"We thought the arms dealer would be on the ship for the port explosion. It wasn't our first time trying to assassinate him."
"What?"
Vallon sighed. "Survived a sniper's bullet in Lothiern. Survived an attempted poisoning against him while he was recovering at the hospital. In Waldstatten, his wife and daughter were incinerated in a car bomb that was meant for him. A few other people were seriously injured. His four associates were all killed in the Parisee at a meeting but he survived that attempt. And just yesterday, I was told that he had died from choking on food, with no involvement from us."
"Just out of curiosity, did you ever find any links between the communists and the Aegyptians or Algerians?" Gassier glared.
"Not yet. But we neutralized a Chinese spy ring in our country a few weeks ago."
"Neutralized?"
"We got tired of passively monitoring them. Given how little they have done, I'm suspecting they were just there to draw everyone's attention from the actual communist spies that are still out at large. But we did learn how they might have been gathering information."
"What happened to them?" Gassier narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure there's a reason I haven't heard about this until now."
"They offered bribes to my agents in exchange to not be killed, and I'm assuming they have bribed many people before to be that confident that some gold and gems would be enough to ensure their safety. The bribes were taken and the Chinese agents were dealt with anyways." Vallon nonchalantly shrugged. "They had safes full of precious metals and stones. The SCE is now investigating anyone that might have unexplained gains in wealth. I've always wondered how some of those retired navy folks were able to enjoy such lavish retirements."
"What happened to the Chinese agents?"
"Fish food somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean."
"The mass poisoning incident in Hamburg?" Gassier rubbed his forehead in frustration as the depth of the SCE's "dirty operations" in Europe became apparent to him.
"Acceptable collateral damage as we had neutralized a large portion of the Algerian rebel leadership that were based out in Europe and cut off a major oversea funding source."
"Which also included the Devil of the Rhine?!" Gassier flipped his table, while Vallon calmly took a step back. "Do you realize that would likely start a war if she had been poisoned and they linked the incident to us?"
"Unfortunate, but we didn't know that the two of them would be going to that specific restaurant. But our agent had detonated an incendiary grenade when the Germanian police cornered him, wiping out any possibility of them even identifying what was left of the corpse."
"Surely you must have gotten some sort of tacit approval from elements of the Germanian government to try something that bold."
"Absolutely not." Vallon narrowed his eyes. "We don't even trust the Albish intelligence services, our supposed informal ally. We don't know who has been infiltrated by the communists or has pro-Algerian sympathies."
"And the other collateral damage you caused is the BND's head resigning, apparently in protest of the Germanian President seizing the opportunity to try to pass some controversial security laws." Gassier pointed his finger. "You do realize that is going to cause problems for us?"
"As for Elya herself now being a free agent? We are making preparations against that in the event they trace the incidents to us." Vallon shrugged. "Besides, they're going to be busy with Caucasia because I got reports of that country erupting into a civil war after their president and his direct replacement was assassinated. Not to mention Kazakh is preparing to sign a treaty of friendship with the Rus."
"What preparations against the Germanians, with more bullets and bombs? I need the BND to be focused on the Rus and Chinese so we can deal with the Aegyptians and our colonial rebellion problems! It'll be the end of all of us if we start clawing each other while the communists continue making their moves."
"We lost two wars and a border skirmish against the Germanians, and I have accepted that there will not be a war in Europe again. But we will not lose Algeria and Indochina to some ragtag rebels and forever be stained by that."
"What are you talking about? We won the first one."
"And the outcome was a resurgent Germania out of the ashes of the Empire."
Gassier sat back down. "You will return home, say nothing publicly about the SCE's activities in Europe, and stay there for an investigation on your conduct. Don't return to your office."
Vallon glowered. "Unlike you, I will do whatever it takes to ensure the defeat of the Algerian rebels and the communists. Even if you fire me."
"Get out." Gassier snapped. "I won't tolerate your extremist 'the end justifies the mean' approach."
"Algeria and Indochina are Frankish and will remain so." Vallon muttered as he walked away.
AN:
Robert A. Taft's isolationism policy context: wiki/Robert_A._Taft
In 1945, Taft was among the seven senators who opposed full United States entry into the United Nations.[34]
On May 26, 1953, Taft delivered his final speech, in which he presciently warned of the dangers of America's emerging Cold War foreign policy, specifically against US military involvement in Southeast Asia, which would later become the Vietnam War:
I have never felt that we should send American soldiers to the Continent of Asia, which, of course, included China proper and Indo-China, simply because we are so outnumbered in fighting a land war on the Continent of Asia that it would bring about complete exhaustion even if we were able to win. ... So today, as since 1947 in Europe and 1950 in Asia, we are really trying to arm the world against Communist Russia, or at least furnish all the assistance which can be of use to them in opposing Communism. Is this policy of uniting the free world against Communism in time of peace going to be a practical long-term policy? I have always been a skeptic on the subject of the military practicability of NATO. ... I have always felt that we should not attempt to fight Russia on the ground on the Continent of Europe any more than we should attempt to fight China on the Continent of Asia.[89]
Context for the "let 1000 flowers bloom" campaign:
wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign
After this brief period of liberalization, the crackdown continued through 1957 and 1959 as an Anti-Rightist campaign against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology. Citizens were rounded up in waves by the hundreds of thousands, publicly criticized, and condemned to prison camps for re-education through labor, or even execution.[5] The ideological crackdown re-imposed Maoist orthodoxy in public expression, and catalyzed the Anti-Rightist Movement.
wiki/Hundred_Schools_of_Thought
IRL, French intelligence services had no hesitation with carrying out assassinations of European citizens in Europe (including outspoken critics of France's handling of the wars) and sinking ships with underwater explosives as part of their counter-insurgency operations against the Algerian rebels:
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/9t1s-w2hJkw?t=519
/9t1s-w2hJkw?t=746
wiki/Service_de_Documentation_Ext_et_de_Contre-Espionnage
As in Vietnam, during the Algerian War, the SDECE played a prominent role in waging la guerre sale ("the dirty war") against the enemies of the republic.[15] The 1950s-60s are remembered as the "era of political assassinations" by SDECE agents as one of the agency's main jobs was to assassinate members of the FLN.[16] The number of killings dramatically stepped up in 1958 when Charles de Gaulle, who gave the SDECE's Action Service carte blanche to kill suspected members of the FLN under the cover of a pseudo-terrorist group called the Red Hand.[17] The first two murders took place in West Germany, where an arms dealer who sold arms to the FLN was killed when the SDECE planted a bomb in his car while an anti-French Algerian politician was killed in a drive-by shooting.[18] The fact that the various Länder police forces of West Germany were ineffective in investigating the "Red Hand" assassinations committed by SDECE was the result of a secret agreement with General Reinhard Gehlen, the chief of the Bundesnachrichtendienst under which the French and German intelligence were to share information in exchange for allowing the SDECE to commit murders on German soil.[19] One SDECE agent Philippe L. Thyaud de Vosjolo wrote in his 1970 memoir Lamia wrote: "Dozens of assassinations were carried out. Besides the use of guns or knives, more sophisticated methods had been perfected. Carbon dioxide guns ejecting small syringes had been purchased in the United States-but the SDECE people substituted the tranquilizing drug with a lethal poison. The victim showed all the symptoms of having suffered a heart attack".[20] Besides for members of the FLN, the SDECE killed left-wing French intellectuals who supported the FLN, arms dealers and other anti-French nationalists in Africa.[21] The SDECE also engaged in hijacking six ships bound for Algeria with arms for the FLN between 1956–61, and blew up one ship packed with weapons for the FLN in Hamburg harbor with a naval mine.[22]
Context on the Russians infiltrating Francois Republic: wiki/Martel_affair