France’s new government, confronted with its first overseas crisis in Brazzaville, Congo, says it will reduce the influence of the old Gaullist covert action networks on French Africa policy. The networks were run by Jacques Foccart, a secretive spymaster who hand-picked leaders in French-speaking Africa and arranged to topple them if they failed to toe his line. He died in March. France supported Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko up to his defeat and ouster last month, leaving it in a compromised position with Laurent Kabila’s new government.