A particular successor

As of 1970, Senator Etienne Dailly gave particular help to a young and simple history teacher from Melun, Alain Vivien, who was later to become a politician called to the highest functions. In 1969 Alain Vivien joined the Socialist Party and almost immediately became a member of the Bureau de la Fédération Socialiste de Seine et Marne. In 1970, he was elected general councillor of the Seine et Marne region. It was at this time that he was chosen by Dailly, who proceeded to rocket him to the National assembly. It was even Dailly’s previous parliamentary assistant who looked after his training as a beginner politician and who advised him throughout his campaign; he was elected in 1973, thanks to a three-cornered contest, and became a deputy in the Melun constituency.

The choosing of Alain Vivien was not a random decision – studies in Germany, a member of the Grand Orient de France and due to the latter fact, having several contacts in African countries; maintaining quite close relations with communist regimes like North Korea, East Germany; specialist on the Middle East, North Africa and particularly Chad where he had worked as a VSO/Peace Corps teacher; specialist on French Overseas Territories and Departments, the Third World and VSO activities; and especially as a man knowing particularly well how to cultivate secrecy and discretion. This young political buck at the start of his dazzling career made an ideal recruit for a job as one of these famous trade reps who tour the world on behalf of arms dealers, carrying a virtual case of banknotes. But who do they really work for?