Product Description

This fascinating new study shows how the CIA and the British secret service, in collaboration with the military alliance NATO and European military secret services, set up a network of clandestine anti-communist armies in Western Europe after World War II.

These secret soldiers were trained on remote islands in the Mediterranean and in unorthodox warfare centres in England and in the United States by the Green Berets and SAS Special Forces. The network was armed with explosives, machine guns and high-tech communication equipment hidden in underground bunkers and secret arms caches in forests and mountain meadows. In some countries the secret army linked up with right-wing terrorist who in a secret war engaged in political manipulation, harrassement of left wing parties, massacres, coup d'états and torture.

Codenamed 'Gladio' ('the sword'), the Italian secret army was exposed in 1990 by Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to the Italian Senate, whereupon the press spoke of The best kept, and most damaging, political-military secret since World War II (Observer, 18. November 1990) and observed that The story seems straight from the pages of a political thriller. (The Times, November 19, 1990). Ever since, so-called 'stay-behind' armies of NATO have also been discovered in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Greece and Turkey. They were internationally coordinated by the Pentagon and NATO and had their last known meeting in the NATO-linked Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) in Brussels in October 1990.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #444249 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
Much of this is appearing in English for the first time and it would be hard to overstate its importance. - Lobster

Customer Reviews

An interpretative key for the understanding of many European misteries
The author is a Swiss researcher who has nicely managed to document in one volume the modus operandi of a secret stay-behind army in Europe which operated since the end of WWII until the end of the Cold War. The book provides a complete documentation of the general patterns of this army across Europe that if taken in isolation would seem improbable. This super secret Army was operating in all Western European countries under different codenames and coordinated by the Allied Clandestine Committee and the Clandestine Planning Committee under the umbrella supervision of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) within the NATO and with the active supporting role of the Pentagon, CIA and the British MI6. The goal of this army was to operate behind enemy lines setting up resistance movements in case of a Soviet invasion of Europe. The secret army was clandestine and illegal in many countries and staffed by loyal anti-communist soldiers and rightwing activists recruited from various sectors, many with a past with the nazis or fascist armies during WWII. These armies have been employed also against the national communist (and in some case socialist) parties (Demagnetize Operation) under the complacence of domestic intelligence services with several suspect cases of assassinations and some documented cases of terrorist attacks against civilian targets, or in overturning democratically elected governments (Greece and Turkey) too dangerously left-leaning. Italy plays an important part in this story since Italy was theatre of several operations and last but not least, a former prime minister eventually admitted before Parliament in 1990, after the investigations of a judge, that a stay-behind army had operated since WWII, opening a Pandora's box of revelations. To each country are dedicated 18 specific chapters (UK, USA, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria) with specific documented episodes, that offers a clarifying picture of this super secret organization. Much remains to be discovered, but the merit of this book is to have put together scattered information in a well organized way. Recommended.

What every European should know
A book both enlightening in its academic post-mortem of recent Western European history and terrifying in its subtext of what might still be in store for the region. Ganser reveals the role of Nato (and specifically the United States) in right-wing terror attacks on European soil, and to some degree breaks through the wall of secrecy surrounding the Gladio units set up in the aftermath of World War II. Nato's Secret Armies is an essential guide to understanding post-war European politics and the powerful realpolitik of EU-US relations.

The Key to Understanding our present circumstances
It does not require a great deal of reading between the lines of NATO's Secret Army to awaken to the grim reality that Americans must now reckon with. The author's description of the "strategy of tension" is chilling. Anyone claiming "disinformation" immediately identifies themselves as an "insider" that others must be wary of. Ultimately, perhaps the most important book of the 21st century.