Shortly after WWII a Europe-wide network of secret armies was organised
under the aegis of NATO, tasked with providing military and intelligence
resistance in the event of a feared Soviet invasion. Modelled on the
resistance movements of the war years, many of these “stay behind” units
remained faithful to their original mandate. But by the early 1960s –
under the pressures of anti-communist politicking and flirtations with
the Far Right – some of these groups began to morph into something more
sinister, linking up with extreme right-wingers who carried out acts of
false-flag terrorism, harassment of left-wing parties and coups d’état.
