During the Cold War, American intelligence services used books as a tool for political influence, according to the documentary Book club: the CIA's secret war. Nearly 10 million books and magazines were sent to countries in the communist bloc. This four-episode series will be available starting Friday, September 25, on France.tv, and will be broadcast on Sunday, October 4, at 2:05 PM on France 2. It may seem unusual to associate the American agency with literature, but for nearly four decades, literature played a unique role in the strategy conducted by the United States against Soviet influence. During the Cold War, as Washington and Moscow clashed not only on the military front but also on the ideological one, books became an instrument of "soft power"—a term used to describe the ability to influence others through culture, diplomacy, and other non-coercive means. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, books and magazines banned by communist regimes were secretly transported. Some crossed borders in trucks or trains, others were hidden in shipments or even dropped by balloons. At the origin of this operation was notably Georges Minden, a Romanian exile based in New York. After Stalin's death, as censorship eased, his program sent hundreds of thousands of books to the East, by mail or through a network of travelers in Western Europe. Poland became one of the main areas for this operation. The 90-minute documentary series, signed by Juliette Guérin, Félix Albert, and Thomas Courcelle, and produced by Bo Travail, revisits this "war of books" in four episodes. Episode 1: The network—In New York, the Romanian exile Georges Minden imagines a secret program aimed at countering Soviet propaganda by making books a new weapon of American "soft power." Episode 2: The battle of books—After Stalin's death, the circulation of books intensifies: from New York and through a network of travelers in Europe, hundreds of thousands of books clandestinely reach the countries of the East, notably Poland. Episode 3: Special missions—As the movement of dissent grows in Gdansk in 1980, volunteers transport books and equipment to the Polish opposition, including the young Frenchman Jacky Challot. Episode 4: Code traveler—After many secret crossings between France and Poland, Jacky Challot is arrested and imprisoned, while the actress Simone Signoret intervenes to try to obtain his release.