Jacques Duclos Jacques Duclos ( 2 October 1896 in Louey , Hautes - Pyrénées - 25 April 1975 in Montreuil ) was a French Communist politician who played a key role in French politics from 1926 , when he entered the French National Assembly after defeating Paul Reynaud , until 1969 , when he won a substantial portion of the vote in the presidential elections . Biography . During World War I , Duclos fought in the Battle of Verdun , where he was wounded . He was captured at Chemin des Dames , and remained a prisoner of war for the remainder of the war . In 1920 , he joined the newly formed French Communist Party . He rose to the Central Committee in 1926 , and defeated Léon Blum in the elections for deputy in the XXe arrondissement . He was named head of the propaganda section of the Party in 1936 , and was elected to Vice - President of the French National Assembly . A Stalinist , Duclos was for more than 35 years the brain behind political choices made by Maurice Thorez and Benoît Frachon . He was involved in the International Communist Movement , in the Comintern , and in the Cominform . In the 1930s , he was assigned the task of exerting " discipline " on Communist Movements in Spain ( 1930 , 1935 ) and Belgium ( 1934 – 1935 ) . On Joseph Stalin ' s orders , he advised the Communist Party of Spain to participate in the Popular Front at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War . Upon France ' s defeat in 1940 , Duclos , the most senior PCF official in France , engaged in negotiations with the Nazi authorities with a view to legalising the Communist Party ( banned following the signature of the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact and the declaration of war ) as well as requesting permission to restart publication of the PCF daily ( " L ' Humanité " ) ( banned by the French government for the same reasons ) . These negotiations did not succeed , failing to protect the PCF ' s post - war credibility among many members of the masses . Duclos was the supervisor of the clandestine French Communist Party throughout the Nazi German Occupation ( 1940 – 1944 ) , and , with Pierre Villon , took the initiative in creating the Front National resistant movement , which was the political front for the Francs - Tireurs et Partisans ( FTP ) guerrillas . The Communist Party USA , meanwhile , had been following a Popular Front line under Earl Browder supportive of the New Deal . With the end of the Great Power alliance at the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War , " Browderism " came under attack from the rest of the international Communist movement . In 1945 Duclos , as a prominent leader of the French Communist Party , published an article denouncing Browder ' s policy . With the Comintern having been dissolved during the war , the " Duclos letter " was used to informally communicate Moscow ' s views . William Z . Foster , Browder ' s predecessor and a staunch Marxist - Leninist , led the opposition to Browder within the CPUSA and replaced him as party chairman in 1945 , with Eugene Dennis taking over as General Secretary . Browder was expelled from the party in 1946 . After 1950 , Maurice Thorez ' s health faltered , but Duclos remained one of the most influential members of the Party . He was acting Secretary General from 1950 to 1953 in Thorez ' s absence and was instrumental in eliminating his rival André Marty from the Party ' s leadership . Waldeck Rochet ' s own failing health prompted Duclos to run as the Party ' s presidential candidate in the 1969 election , scoring 21 . 27 % of the vote , the highest ever for a Communist presidential candidate in France .