Pont-St.-Esprit, France, August 16, 1951.

[Jean Ceulemans]

10 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

A couple of more notes on the documentary John linked.

Somewhere in the latter part the narrator mentions kind of in passing that the town of Pont-St- Esprit "was under control of socialists at the time".  I found that interesting, that the US Army, CIA and British Intelligence would choose to target a town under control of socialists (if this was true) for such an experiment on such a grand scale so early in the Cold War.

Vincent Auriol (French President 1947 - 1954) was a socialist (Workers Int´l), and he had 5 communist ministers he became president because the CP supported him).  The CP was a large (actually the largest) party in France in those years, but not so big they could dictate policies.  However, when the CP stepped out, a lot of troubles started... Auriol was followed by Coty (he had 477 votes vs 329 socialist votes).  Now the period was very much about how they acted in Vietnam/Indochina.  And when Algeria went bad deGaulle stepped back in (Catholics). It was Coty that kinda pushed deGaulle in the political game again in  1958 (Coty admired deGaulle).

But in 1951 I can see the US being worried by what was happening in France with such a large CP there.  And how things were moving in Indochina

 

Edited May 2 by Jean Ceulemans

[W. Niederhut]

On 4/25/2024 at 10:05 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Thank you for this John.  A lot of info in there.  It was cool to see Hank Albarelli talking briefly, Then Lashbrook, the Army/CIA fellow scientist who was int the room with Frank Olson when he was pitched out the window.  It did start drifting away from Pont-St.-Esprit but came back with a good closing by Albarelli.

Though in their summation I think they get the method of delivery wrong.  It was not the bread.  Fank Olson's bio-chemistry research specialty was aerosol delivery of such products.  Frank's son Eric referred to a home movie with a short blurb in it of a crop duster taking off from an unknown field.  Not much, but Frank was in France or the area specifically on dates before, itself and after per some documentation.

The photography of the town is great.  Much larger than I imagined.

Worth re watching and taking notes for me.

Ron,

    If I recall correctly, from the Wormwood documentary, Frank Olson may have been involved in developing the aerosol delivery technology for biological weapons (e.g., Anthrax) used by the U.S. during the Korean War.

    Of course, it was all top secret, and led to elaborate U.S. government denials when U.S. POWs in Korea announced that the U.S. had used biological weapons in Korea.

     The cover story was that our POWs had been "brainwashed."

[Ron Bulman]

10 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Ron,

    If I recall correctly, from the Wormwood documentary, Frank Olson may have been involved in developing the aerosol delivery technology for biological weapons (e.g., Anthrax) used by the U.S. during the Korean War.

    Of course, it was all top secret, and led to elaborate U.S. government denials when U.S. POWs in Korea announced that the U.S. had used biological weapons in Korea.

     The cover story was that our POWs had been "brainwashed."

 

Yes, on the aerosol in the latter part of his career, earlier on protective equipment, for those handling Anthrax and other substances.  

Treating the reportedly brainwashed Korean POW's was how your former potential mentor Jolyon West first gained the attention of the CIA.  More on the aerosol's in a few days, I'm going out of town tomorrow.

[Ron Bulman]

16 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

Vincent Auriol (French President 1947 - 1954) was a socialist (Workers Int´l), and he had 5 communist ministers he became president because the CP supported him).  The CP was a large (actually the largest) party in France in those years, but not so big they could dictate policies.  However, when the CP stepped out, a lot of troubles started... Auriol was followed by Coty (he had 477 votes vs 329 socialist votes).  Now the period was very much about how they acted in Vietnam/Indochina.  And when Algeria went bad deGaulle stepped back in (Catholics). It was Coty that kinda pushed deGaulle in the political game again in  1958 (Coty admired deGaulle).

But in 1951 I can see the US being worried by what was happening in France with such a large CP there.  And how things were moving in Indochina

 

Thank you for the detailed French perspective Jean.  It clears things up, it seems we (USA), some of us, were worried about France going Socialist or even Communist.  I don't personally approve of all the methods used but I'm glad that didn't happen.

[Jean Ceulemans]

Thanks, in 1947 the CP had some 30% of the total votes in France, but when they stepped out a little later (choose opposition in government), the numbers kept going down.

It was pretty much the same in many Western European countries, the CP had gained a lot of support during WWII when they were a large resistance force (funded by Russia) against the Germans (well... it has to be said, that only really started when Germany invaded Russia). 

 

[Tony Rose]

13 hours ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

Thanks, in 1947 the CP had some 30% of the total votes in France, but when they stepped out a little later (choose opposition in government), the numbers kept going down.

It was pretty much the same in many Western European countries, the CP had gained a lot of support during WWII when they were a large resistance force (funded by Russia) against the Germans (well... it has to be said, that only really started when Germany invaded Russia). 

 

Stalin supported communists all over the world. And we supported their opponents. This is one of the strands in our support of fascists, reactionaries, and dictators of all stripes.