The Club des Cent is a secretive, invitation-only foreign policy group that has operated since the early Cold War period

The Club des Cent (sometimes referred to in intelligence literature as the “Cercle des Cent” or simply “Le Cercle”) is a secretive, invitation-only foreign policy group that has operated since the early Cold War period. It is distinct from the gourmet dining club of the same name in Paris (the actual “Club des Cent” for food critics). The intelligence-related group is often called Le Cercle in French sources or The Pinay Circle in Anglo-American ones, named after its most influential early chairman, former French Prime Minister Antoine Pinay.

Origins and Structure

• Founded in the early 1950s by Antoine Pinay and French Prime Minister Jean Violet (a lawyer with close ties to French intelligence, particularly the SDECE – the predecessor of DGSE).
• Created as a private, anti-communist forum to coordinate Atlanticist (pro-NATO, pro-US–Europe alliance) foreign policy and intelligence efforts outside official channels.
• Membership has always been small, elite, and transnational: senior politicians, intelligence officers, bankers, diplomats, industrialists, and occasionally royalty. Former members or attendees include:
• Franz Josef Bach (German diplomat and CDU politician)
• Alan Clark (British Conservative MP)
• Giulio Andreotti (Italian PM)
• Otto von Habsburg
• Henry Kissinger (attended at least once)
• David Rockefeller
• Margaret Thatcher (met with the group)
• Senior figures from MI6, CIA, French SDECE/DGSE, German BND, Belgian Sûreté, etc.

Involvement in Covert Operations

Le Cercle has never been an operational intelligence agency, but it functioned as a high-level private intelligence coordination and strategy group. Its documented or strongly alleged involvement includes:

1. Anti-communist propaganda and psychological warfare

• Financed and coordinated anti-Soviet and anti-leftist operations in Europe through linked organizations such as the Interdoc network and the Institut de Politique Internationale.
• Funded anti-communist trade union activities and media operations.

1. Africa and the “Françafrique” network

• Jean Violet and other Cercle members were deeply involved in French neocolonial networks in Africa, especially through the Safari Club (a 1970s intelligence alliance between France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco designed to bypass CIA restrictions after the Church Committee).
• Supported interventions in Congo/Zaïre, Chad, and elsewhere.

1. 1980s anti-neutrality campaigns in Europe

• Coordinated private funding and strategy against European neutralism and the peace movement (especially in West Germany and the Netherlands). Linked to the creation of front organizations that received covert CIA and MI6 funding.

1. The “Clockwork Orange”–style operations in the UK

• British Cercle members (Julian Amery, Brian Crozier, Nicholas Elliott) were implicated in attempts to destabilize the Labour government of Harold Wilson in the 1970s via smear campaigns involving MI5 and private intelligence networks.

1. Support for the 1980s Reagan–Thatcher hardline policies

• Acted as a back-channel between European conservative circles and the incoming Reagan administration, particularly on intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) deployments in Europe.

Secrecy and Current Status

• The group deliberately avoids publicity. Meetings are held twice a year in different countries, always under heavy security and with no minutes published.
• After the end of the Cold War, its focus reportedly shifted toward the Middle East, Islamic terrorism, and later Russia/China.
• As of the 2010s–2020s, it is believed to still exist in a much reduced form, sometimes under different informal names, with younger Atlanticist politicians and intelligence veterans.

In summary, the Club des Cent / Le Cercle was one of the most important private covert action networks of the Cold War era – not an official agency, but a place where senior Western intelligence officers, politicians, and financiers could plan and fund operations that official agencies could not or would not touch. Its influence peaked in the 1970s–1980s and has significantly declined since, but its model of private–public coordination continues to fascinate researchers of “deep politics.”

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