SRANGE KIND OF HISTORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100020083-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 14, 2003
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: October 26, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

BOSTO1'i, IIASS.
HERALD TRAVE
~~ 216,305
S - 298,557
roved For Release 2003/12/02: CIA-RDP75-00001 R
STAT
.1 Ing sides; , Cuba, when. he
supplied reports to the..CIAL-
1'lashington . during the 1950's
lied Allen Dulles
hen 'he su
pp
w
r ` and Gen. V alter Bedell Smith
with proof of hour the Soviets
'I government at the highest
level.
TAI{i, ANY significant
event in recent history from
r French consul Robineau to
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i
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t
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py-WWho-Canic-in-otit-of-the.Colct author John la the doings of the Red Hand
Carne, it would be a lot easier to accep who supported nationalists in
t than as Algiers and "Lamia" has the
6dvei?tised, the code name for Dc Gaulle's chief of story behind the story.
intelligence in '"lashin ;ton. If half of what "Lamia History for him has no con-
has written in a book published earlier this month tinuity. History is the result
with that title (344 pp. Little, Dro%vii $6.95) is true, of conspiracies.
then Henry Ford was right - "History, is bunk." The trouble with this view
The other half of "Lamia" the sacrifice of determined of history is that it is irrefut-
can be dismissed as the', men to keep their liberties, able, . insidious. Who can
vaporings of an intelligence- Once "Lamia" was In attack this mountain of al-
for-hire who was outsmarted North Africa and assigned to legations. and cut it down to a
by his employes and who is work for the Free French, he molehill. There are more in-
trying to get his owe back. began handling secret docu- situations - let alone out-
m tents which convinced him right accusations --- here
Lamia became involv- than a historian could review
~ed in intelligence work way that De Gaulle was less in- in a lifetime.
back in 1943 when his knov.l_ terested in 'assuring those "
edge of the country round liberties for all Frenchmen, OctLamia c63blew his cover Oil and about the small town of than in out-maneuvering his Oct. 18, 19, when he
Romorantin in the center of. competitor, General Giraud. eu out of the French embassy
Prance enabled him - to 'At this point "Lamia's" view in Washington and headed for
smuggle many. people -- of history becomes a view of Mexico where he asked for,
especially Jews -? across the history as conspiracy. From political asylum, under his
Cher River from. German- now on the book reads like a real name P.L. Thyraud de
administered France into so- clinical study in the. psychic Vosjoli. He stayed there for a
called free, Vichy-administer- abnormalities of generals -- year until he Could apply for
ed France. Caught up by the mad, all mad. When Gen. a visa' to return to the United
police on a trip to Paris when De Lattre de Tassigny visit- States as a visitor where, he
he was acting as a courier for ed Washington in 1951 he was now lives as a political
British intelligence, he was ,tore preoccupied with get- refugee.
forced to flee to North Africa ting five stars on his license If he ' were writing as a
by way of .. Spain and plate than anything else. . thriller writer, as an alias le
Portugal. When, after 24 hours of Carre, there- would be no
bickering and the General problem. Writing as a
history 'LaLaS point the could think of nothing else, serious, reliable witness to
;hstoof of "mia" is under- he got his five stars. He was events of the last 20 years,
stated, P. believable, account tearfully grateful. Vanity of he challenges the integrity of
Of .,how the French under- vanity, all is' vanity. all the great participants, De
ground developed under her- As I read "Lainia,". the Gaulle preeminently, and the
man occupation. A man here
with special k n o tip; I e d g e, author was in on all time great view most
history For of us most of have ia of
another there irritated by the decisions in the history of the ord of
"Hoene," got together and be- world -- not the East or the history is for the him reecc id the
gan taking concerted action West, but the world - from
cutting wires, blowing bridges 1943 until 1963. These involv- blotter of vanities.
and derailing trains. To this ed Indochina when the United (P. Albert Duha,ncf Is Her-
point history is intelligible as, States - was supporting the aid Traveler literary editor.)
Vietminh led by Ifo Chi Minh
Approved For Release 2003/12/02 CIA-RDP75-00001 R000100020083-4