Pierre Marion

Pierre Marion
Pierre Marion
Director of SDECE
	In office; 17 June 1981 –2 April 1982
President	François Mitterrand
Preceded by	Alexandre de Marenches
Director of DGSE
	In office; 2 April 1982 –10 November 1982
Succeeded by	Pierre Lacoste
Personal details
Born	24 January 1921; Marseille, France
Died	17 May 2010 (aged 89); Louviers, France
Nationality	French
Spouse(s)	Jane Marion; Michèle Menegay Marion; Colette Allègre
Alma mater	École Polytechnique

Last updated May 02, 2019

Pierre Marion (24 January 1921 – 17 May 2010) was a French senior official, who was the first director of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE – Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) from 1981 to 1982, and its predecessor, the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE).

The General Directorate for External Security is France's external intelligence agency. The French equivalent to the United Kingdom's MI6 and the United States' CIA, the DGSE operates under the direction of the French Ministry of Defence and works alongside its domestic counterpart, the DGSI, in providing intelligence and safeguarding national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. As with most other intelligence agencies, details of its operations and organization are not made public.

The Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage, abbreviated SDECE, was France's external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982, when it was replaced by the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE). It should not be confused with the Deuxième Bureau which was intended to pursue purely military intelligence.

Marion was born in Marseille, and entered the École Polytechnique at just 18 years of age. Following his education, he joined Air France where he held various management positions from 1956 to 1972. He then became managing director of aerospace manufacturer Aerospatiale's North American operations for ten years.^[1]

Marseille is the second-largest city of France. The main city of the historical province of Provence, it is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It is located on French Riviera coast near the mouth of the Rhône. The city covers an area of 241 km² (93 sq mi) and had a population of 852,516 in 2012. Its metropolitan area, which extends over 3,173 km² (1,225 sq mi) is the third-largest in France after Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,831,500 as of 2010.

École polytechnique is a French public institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, a suburb southwest of Paris. It is one of the most prestigious and selective French scientific and engineering schools, called grandes écoles in French. It is known for its ingénieur polytechnicien scientific degree program which is equivalent to both a bachelor and master of science. Its entrance exam, the X-ENS exam, is renowned for its selectivity with a little over 500 admitted students out of the 53 848 students enrolled in the preparatory programs for the French scientific and engineering schools entrance exams.

Air France, stylized as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance. As of 2013 Air France serves 36 destinations in France and operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to 168 destinations in 78 countries and also carried 46,803,000 passengers in 2015. The airline's global hub is at Charles de Gaulle Airport with Orly Airport as the primary domestic hub. Air France's corporate headquarters, previously in Montparnasse, Paris, are located on the grounds of Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris.

In 1981, Marion was asked by his friend, Charles Hernu (who had been made Minister of Defence in François Mitterrand's government), if he would become director of the SDECE, the French external intelligence agency. He agreed, and set about modernising the service, reducing its ties to the French military, and changing its name to DGSE. Marion clashed with Mitterrand over several issues, including the creation of an anti-terrorist cell operating from within the President's office, and in 1982 he was replaced by Admiral Pierre Lacoste.^[1]

Charles Hernu was a French socialist politician. He served as Minister of Defence from 1981 to 1985, until forced to resign over the bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in French history. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-wing politician to be elected President of France under the Fifth Republic.

Marion died in 2010 in Louviers.^[1]

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References

1 2 3 Giraud, De Pierre-Marie (28 May 2010). "Décès de Pierre Marion, premier patron des services secrets de l'ère Mitterrand". Agence France-Presse (in French). Retrieved 7 April 2012.

Government offices
Preceded by Alexandre de Marenches	Director of the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage/Directorate-General for External Security 1981–1982	Succeeded by Pierre Lacoste

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[afp-1] 1 2 3 Giraud, De Pierre-Marie (28 May 2010). "Décès de Pierre Marion, premier patron des services secrets de l'ère Mitterrand". Agence France-Presse (in French). Retrieved 7 April 2012.

Pierre Marion

Director of SDECE
In office 17 June 1981 –2 April 1982
President	François Mitterrand
Preceded by	Alexandre de Marenches
Director of DGSE
In office 2 April 1982 –10 November 1982
Succeeded by	Pierre Lacoste

Personal details
Born	(1921-01-24)24 January 1921 Marseille, France
Died	17 May 2010(2010-05-17) (aged 89) Louviers, France
Nationality	French
Spouse(s)	Jane Marion; Michèle Menegay Marion; Colette Allègre
Alma mater	École Polytechnique