ISC - CFHM - IHCC

Rear Admiral Olivier Sevaistre (Ret.), the captain of the ship Labouerie, commander Jean Pages, and Jean Klein, chief of research at the CNRS / National Center for Scientific Research / were kind enough to agree to read‑the manuscript and let me have their observations which I used to great effect. They will find here the expression of my appreciation as well as my appreciation of all those who collaborated in this work at the IFRI. I am also deeply indebted to the libraries of the Naval War College, the National School of Administration, the French International Relations Institute, and the Bordeaux Political Studies Institute who very freely accepted my research efforts. The maps were done by Michel Chesnais.

This book owes its existence to two persons. Jean‑Louis Martres, professor at the University of Bordeaux‑I, asked me for a report on this topic for the conference on the Soviet Union organized in 1980 by the Comparative Political Analysis Center of Bordeaux (its text was published in the conference’s transactions under the title: Soviet Maritime Power, in Francis Conte and Jean‑Louis Martres, L’Union sovietique dans les relations internationales / The Soviet Union in International Relations /, Economica, Paris, 1982, pp 297 to 326) and guided my research. Marc Gilbert, IFRI secretary‑general, was the first to have the idea for this book and encouraged me to write it. He passed away on 7 November 1982 without seeing it in print. This work could not have appeared without him. It is only fitting that it should be dedicated to his memory here.