NATO's secret armies : Operation Gladio and terrorism in Western Europe / Daniele Ganser

After the Second World War NATO and its member states with the assistance of the CIA and MI6 established and serviced networks of resistance movements across Europe. In the event of a Soviet invasion these sleeper armies would be activated to orchestrate attacks and maximise resistance against the invaders. This was considered a serious possibility and the strategy drew on the experience of the SOE backed resistance movements that caused considerable problems for the Germans in WWII. The Soviet invasion did not materialise and according to this book some groups later became politically involved in anti-communist activities and in right wing terrorism. The book describes the secret war operations in UK, USA, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Greece and Turkey; it argues that politicisation was widespread and that efforts have regularly been made to suppress knowledge of what has come to be known as the Gladio phenomenon.