The Wine of Newsprint

In ten years as France's Ambassador to the U.S., Henri Bonnet has developed a great admiration for the U.S. press. Last week, on the eve of his retirement and return to France, 66-year-old Ambassador Bonnet good-naturedly told members of Washington's National Press Club why.

The U.S. press, as stimulating as "the little glass of white wine," provides a diplomat "with graphic arguments for his conversations at the State Department, based on good, authentic American sources that he does not hesitate to quote categorically--provided, of course, these arguments help support his point of view.

"The press also reveals to the diplomat sometimes hitherto undisclosed plans of the American Government which he naturally thinks, in all friendship, he should have been told about in advance."

Getting along with the U.S. press, Bonnet found, was one of his most important diplomatic objectives: "The greatest skill an ambassador requires is to be able to emerge from a visit at the State Department and reveal something which puts the American press on his side. But this is a very delicate business. Solemn promises of complete discretion have been exchanged only a few minutes before. Propriety demands that they be respected until the evening."

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