Remembrances of Things Past

In one of his more startling moves during his eleven years as President of France, Charles de Gaulle summarily dismissed Georges Pompidou as his Premier in July 1968. It was particularly shocking in view of the fact that during the disruptive May riots earlier that year, it was Pompidou--not the general--who kept the government running, cooled hot feelings between police and students, and persuaded striking workers to return to the job. Pompidou had also managed the subsequent parliamentary elections for the Gaullists, who won the largest majority that any government had held in nearly 100 years. Upon De Gaulle's resignation last year, Pompidou ran for President and won, but without any support from le grand Charles. Relations be tween the two are, to put it mildly, strained. Last week the publication in France of Le Duel De Gaulle-Pompidou showed just how strained.

Accustomed to Mediocrity. Written by Political Journalist Philippe Alexandre, 38, the 400-page book is a candid chronicle of outspoken conversations by and about the two men. "I am an old man, an old man who has seen so much treason and mediocrity around him," De Gaulle is quoted as saying before Pompidou's successful election. "I'm not dead, even if Pompidou wishes I were. You'll see. He won't be elected President. Besides, it would be depressing. If the French people reject me, it certainly won't be to take a Pompidou."

After the turmoil of the May 1968 riots, De Gaulle is quoted as having remarked to former Interior Minister Christian Fouchet: "We never should have reopened the Sorbonne, never." When Fouchet argued that there might very well have been serious shooting otherwise, Alexandre quoted De Gaulle as replying: "So what? Maybe there would have been 50 dead. I would have immediately replaced the Premier." When replacement time did come, Pompidou learned of it from France-Soir Editor Pierre Lazareff, with whom he was lunching that day. "Well, what are you going to do when you're no longer here?" Lazareff began briskly. Fifteen minutes later the Elysee Palace called with the confirmation.

Alexandre insists that he has carefully and completely verified his book by double-checking each quote with two or more sources. Says Alexandre, who is a distant relative by marriage to Gaullist Defense Minister Michel Debre: "I regretfully had to leave out a great many marvelous bon mots of the general because I wasn't a hundred percent certain of them." He adds that Pompidou, who invited him to the Elysee Palace for an amiable 90-minute talk upon receiving a complimentary copy of the book, "did not deny or question the authenticity of any of the direct quotations of himself or of the general."

Incredible Prescience. Pompidou clearly emerges as the Good Guy to De Gaulle's Bad Guy. Through his quotes, De Gaulle appears to be acid-tongued, vengeful and often petty. Yet he also emerges as a man with an obviously brilliant political mind. Almost three weeks before the Six-Day War in 1967, he informed a Cabinet meeting that he was about to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, who was then in Paris. The general, with almost incredible prescience, told his ministers that he planned to tell Eban:

"Quite obviously you are getting ready for new hostilities. If you do, you are bound to win, and very quickly. But this will have three serious consequences. First, Soviet implantation in the Middle East, and from there it will develop in Africa, which is not without importance for France. The balance of forces in the world will be threatened. The second consequence: in the Arab world, moderate regimes will be discouraged and fall to the extremists. This will threaten oil supplies in the West, especially for Europe. Finally, the Palestinian problem, which is still only one of refugees, will become a great national cause. We wish Israel nothing but well. All our warnings must be considered as signs of our interest and friendship. Don't jump to the wrong conclusions." After the meeting with Eban. De Gaulle prophetically told Pompidou that the imminent war "will last less than ten days."

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