French Covert Action in the American Revolution: Memoirs and Occasional Papers Series

U.S. intelligence specialist James M. Potts shows how covert French military aid changed the course of history by enabling the rebellious Americans to hold off the forces of George III, most notably in the pivotal battle of Saratoga in October 1777. Potts probes the actions of Louis XVI's government in secretly providing vital arms and ammunition to George Washington's forces-and much-needed subsidies to the Continental Congress-in the critical early years of the American Revolution, 1776 to 1778. Drawing heavily on contemporaneous French government archives and other historical sources, Potts brings to life the colorful leading characters in the drama: French Foreign Minister le Comte de Vergennes
Vergennes's principal agent, the playwright Beaumarchais
Lord Stormont, King George's ambassador in Paris
Benjamin Franklin, the wily American Commissioner in Paris
and numerous perpetrators of high intrigue on land and sea. Highly effective British counterespionage operations, whose American agents had penetrated Franklin's mission in Paris, even intercepted his letters to the Continental Congress. Joining the Americans openly in 1778 in their war against the British, France moved ever closer to bankruptcy and its own revolution. 'If Benjamin Franklin's covert operations are not well known to the American public, the secret role of the French in the birth of our nation has certainly been minimized and usually overlooked by historians. James Potts's book successfully fills this gap. Moreover, proving that true spy stories are often more interesting than spy fiction, "French Covert Action in the American Revolution," exciting as it is well documented, makes a fascinating as well as valuable contribution to American colonial history." ----John H. Waller, noted author and authority on intelligence