Since the Second World War, France has pursued a clandestine international rivalry with Great Britain and, to a lesser extent, the United States. It has sometimes been jealous and resentful of the power and status of the English-speaking world, genuinely fearing that rivals will steal or undermine her colonial possessions or influence. At the same time, France has needed power and influence to ward off other threats, such as communism and nationalism. This extraordinary book tells the story of that curious tension through the prism of the ‘secret wars’ that France has fought against, and sometimes alongside, her two Anglo-Saxon competitors since 1945.