
Pierre Jules Cot (20 November 1895, in
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
– 21 August 1977, Paris), was a French politician and leading figure in the
Popular Front government of the 1930s.
Born in
Grenoble
Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...
into a conservative Catholic family, he entered politics as an admirer of the
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
conservative leader
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...
, but moved steadily to the left over the course of his career. Through the decrypting of 1943 Soviet intelligence cables through the
Venona Project it was established that Cot was an agent of the Soviet Union with the code name of "Dedal". However, other sources suggest that Cot was a communist
fellow-traveller rather than an agent. The British
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 (MI numbers, Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of Human i ...
describes him as "a highly controversial figure, vilified at the time by the French Right, and since accused of having been a Soviet agent".
Biography
In the 1920s Cot was a supporter of
Aristide Briand
Aristide Pierre Henri Briand (; 28 March 18627 March 1932) was a French statesman who served eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic. He is mainly remembered for his focus on international issues and reconciliat ...
, an independent socialist. In 1928 he was elected to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
as a
Radical Deputy for
Savoy
Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...
. In December 1932 he was appointed Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the centre-left government of
Joseph Paul-Boncour.
In January 1933, he became Minister for Air in the Radical government of
Édouard Daladier
Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical Party (France), Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, who was the Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934 and again from 1938 to 1940. he signed the Munich Agreeme ...
. He oversaw the establishment of
Air France
Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
, and advocated a major expansion of the
French Air Force
The French Air and Space Force (, , ) is the air force, air and space force of the French Armed Forces. Formed in 1909 as the ("Aeronautical Service"), a service arm of the French Army, it became an independent military branch in 1934 as the Fr ...
. He was conscious of the real aim of the Nazi policy of creating
sailgliding clubs through the
Hitlerjugend and supported the expansion of working class aero-clubs movement called Aviation Populaire as a countermeasure, but left office in February 1934 when the
Stavisky Affair forced Daladier from power. He was again Minister for Air in three brief governments led by
Camille Chautemps
Camille Chautemps (; 1 February 1885 – 1 July 1963) was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister).
He was the father-in-law of U.S. politician and statesman Howar ...
.
In 1936, Cot, by this time a socialist, became a leading support of the Popular Front, an alliance of the Radicals and the
Socialists
Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...
led by
Léon Blum, with the support of the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
. An antiwar activist, though not a pacifist, he was president of the
International Peace Conference from 1936 to 1940. He received the
Stalin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel ...
in 1953.
When Blum became Prime Minister in June 1936, Cot returned to the Air Ministry. He oversaw the nationalisation of the aeronautical industry and the launch of a re-armament program to meet the challenge of the fast-growing German
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
.
When the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
broke out, Blum's government reluctantly supported the policy of non-intervention, but Cot became a leading organiser of clandestine aid to the
Spanish Republic. He organized a fictitious sale to Hejaz, Finland and Brazil of war planes, that made a flight scale in Spain.
The head of his ministerial office,
Jean Moulin
Jean Pierre Moulin (; 20 June 1899 – 8 July 1943) was a French civil servant and hero of the French Resistance who succeeded in unifying the main networks of the Resistance in World War II, a unique act in Europe. He served as the first Presid ...
(later a leader of the
French Resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
), made several trips to Spain. This brought Cot into close collaboration with the communists, with whom he had increasingly sympathised since a visit to the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in 1933. His activities were one of the factors leading to the withdrawal of the right-wing of the Radical Party from the government and Blum's resignation in June 1937. In Blum's second government in March and April 1938, Cot was Minister for Commerce.
When Daladier returned to office and signed the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was reached in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Third Republic, French Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The agreement provided for the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–194 ...
with
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
, Cot broke finally with the Radical Party.
In May 1940, Prime Minister
Paul Reynaud sent Cot on a mission to buy arms, particularly aircraft, from the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the
Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939 had in effect made the Soviet Union a German ally. The fall of France the following month rendered his mission pointless. He flew to London and offered his services to
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
's
Free French
Free France () was a resistance government
claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...
movement, but de Gaulle considered him to be too pro-communist and offered him no position. Cot then went to the United States, where he spent the war years teaching at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
.
During this period in the United States operating as a Soviet spy, his controller was
Vasiliy Zarubin, the chief
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
"
Rezident
A resident spy in the world of espionage is an agent operating within a foreign country for extended periods of time. A base of operations within a foreign country with which a resident spy may liaise is known as a "station" in English and a (, 'r ...
" for the United States who operated under the name of Vasiily Zubilin.
["The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors" Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel pg. 56]
Cot was an influential figure among French political exiles, and in 1943 de Gaulle appointed him a member of the provisional French advisory assembly based in
Algiers
Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
. De Gaulle also sent him to Moscow to negotiate Soviet recognition of the Free French government in exile.
In 1945, Cot was again elected as Deputy for Savoy, styling himself a republican although everyone knew he remained close to the communists. In 1951, he shifted to the
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...
, but when de Gaulle came to power in 1958 he lost his seat. In 1967 he made a final return to politics when he was elected as an independent Deputy for Paris, with the backing of the Communist Party. He was again defeated in the right-wing landslide election of 1968. He died in Paris in 1977.
Cot's son,
Jean-Pierre Cot, was a minister in the Socialist government of
Pierre Mauroy in 1981–82 and was a member of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
in 1978–1979 and 1984–1999. Since 2002 he has been a member of the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) is an intergovernmental organization created by the mandate of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. It was established by the United Nations Convention on the Law ...
.
References
External links
French biographical website on Pierre Cot(with photo). This website is the main source for this article.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cot, Pierre
1895 births
1977 deaths
Politicians from Grenoble
Democratic Republican Alliance politicians
Republican-Socialist Party politicians
Radical Party (France) politicians
Union progressiste politicians
Ministers of commerce of France
Government ministers of France
Secretaries of State of France
Members of the 14th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 15th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the 16th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic
Members of the Provisional Consultative Assembly
Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945)
Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1946)
Deputies of the 1st National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic
Deputies of the 3rd National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic
Members of Parliament for Savoie
Members of Parliament for Rhône
Members of Parliament for Paris
French general councillors
Stalin Peace Prize recipients