A Sword for Peace and Liberty Vol I - by Philippe Wodka-Gallien - Paperback

This book reconstructs the solid continuity of the nuclear strategy of the Republic of France, one of five permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations. Over the last 60 years France has developed its own indigenous nuclear capability, including not only nuclear warheads, but the delivery platforms for them: strategic bombers, tactical aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and space assets. The trauma of the German Blitzkrieg from May 1940 informed the vision of the leaders in which French sovereignty was mandatory –in political, military, and technological approaches. The resulting effort was massive in financial terms yet shared both by the left- and right-wing of the political landscape: it progressively even obtained the support of the French Communist Party! The spirit of resistance drove the ambition, with the motto, ‘no more military invasion’. That said, and as this book highlights, much of the resulting projects were – secretly or openly – run in cooperation with the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Indeed, diplomacy was obliged to find its way between Washington and London.

Volume 1 focuses on the launch of the nuclear ambition just after the liberation of the country, and then reconstructs the build-up of the strategic triad. To obtain the support of the politicians and the opinions, significant efforts were made by the experts on the ‘bomb’: free initiatives of officers and academics were consolidated by the official communications of the Ministry of Defence.