From a Gaullist View

...It has mistaken the style of Gaullist rhetoric for the substance of Gaullist policy and interpreted every criticism of U.S...

...Pax Americana" "America has gone out of its collective mind on the subject of France," writes John Hess, Paris correspondent of the New York Times, in a provocative, fascinating, and altogether admiring account of Charles de Gaulle's often perplexing policies...

...If de Gaulle criticizes the Vietnam war instead of supporting it like Harold Wilson (who depends on U.S...

...And, until the crisis of last May, he had succeeded brilliantly in bringing a financially shaky, politically rotten, war-wracked nation to prosperity, stability, and independence...

...The American press has been notoriously derelict in reporting French policy over the past decade, and Hess' own newspaper has been among the more serious offenders...

...In fact, it is easier to be a Gaullist if one does not live in France, for then one can enjoy the General's panache without having to suffer a regime that is hypersensitive to the demands of the Church and the wealthy, and that not only censors books and films but manipulates the radio-television network...

...And if, like ourselves, de Gaulle insists on an independent nuclear force, we assume he is a madman...

...In a lucid account of the gold crisis he maintains that "the great upheaval had to be covered for our press by reporters who couldn't tell the difference between a Roosa bond and a pawn ticket...

...backing of the faltering pound), he is accused of perfidy...

...An unstinting admirer of the French President, Hess is less interested in presenting a balanced interpretation of the General's policies than in explaining them from a Gaullist point of view...

...They will be remembered long after de Gaulle's irritating mannerisms and shortcomings have been forgotten...

...He cannot be forced to pursue or support policies he believes are inimical to the welfare of France...

...This is a perfectly legitimate—indeed, in this case necessary—approach, and he carries it off with great skill, exploring de Gaulle's attitude toward the Jews, the dollar, the American Challenge, the Common Market, nato, and Canada...

...Our chauvinistic press has been a good deal more paranoid about de Gaulle than our government...

...If the New York Times and the Washington Post kept their readers as well informed about French policy as Le Monde and Le Figaro do about American policy, Hess would probably not have had to write his antidote...

...While de Gaulle is a superb stylist, his preoccupation with foreign policy brought the nation to the crisis of last May, and the bill for the General's style is now falling due...

...If he opposes British entry into the Common Market, we treat his policy as though it were primarily an affront to us rather than to the British (who, incidentally, have refused to accept the agreements already worked out by the European Economic Community and are even more hostile than de Gaulle to some members' federalist ambitions...

...These are enormous accomplishments...

...Americans, he argues, have adopted a "paranoic delusion" about the French President because they have been poorly informed by the mass media...

...Far from infallible, he is nevertheless a political genius, one of the few towering figures of our time, and Hess' admirable little book offers a welcome corrective to our myopic view of the General and his policies...

...Still de Gaulle goes on triumphantly, sending new frissons of outrage down the spines of the American public and press...

...Americans (and Britons too) feel a strong antipathy to de Gaulle, Hess says, because no one has ever tried to explain Gaullist policy to them from a French point of view...

...De Gaulle, to be sure, is troublesome, independent, and frequently uncooperative...

...Hess does not make much of an attempt to analyze the General's domestic policy, which is a good deal less brilliant than his foreign policy...

...De Gaulle ended the Algerian war, which destroyed the Fourth Republic and nearly led to a military dictatorship, brought economic expansion with relatively little inflation, began modernizing a stagnant society, and restored self-respect to a country that was demoralized, embittered, and on the verge of civil war...

...This is a damning indictment but unfortunately not an unfair one...

...Hess pulls no punches here, and singles out his colleagues, though not by name, for much of the blame: Reporters are ill informed about France, or prejudiced against de Gaulle, or both—and their editors are no better...

...While the chapters on Gaullist policy toward Israel and Quebec are a bit superficial and unconvincing, his examination of France's role in the world monetary crisis, the Atlantic alliance, and the European community is rewarding and informative...

...diplomacy as a mortal threat to the Republic...