"I Was the State"

Time and frustration had blurred the towering, bony frame and added flesh to the sad falcon face. But the manner was still much the same--the haughtiness, the imperious pride and, over it all, the toga of weary martyrdom. He strode in past the painted nudes and mirrored walls of Paris' Hotel Continental to a burst of applause. Hundreds of his admirers, as they always do, had clustered around the dais and monopolized most of the seats at the press conference, leaving newsmen to find seats where they could.

His arms outstretched in the gesture that once thrilled all France, General Charles de Gaulle, 63, spoke his mind. "France has a humane mission," he said. "[It] is undoubtedly to ensure that the two halves of the world do not cast themselves into the abyss . . . Above all, let us remain France, sovereign, independent and free!" His followers thundered applause.

"Go Right Ahead." For the first time in five months, the general had come out of the rural isolation of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises (pop. 312) to exhort his withering but still formidable army into renewed assaults on the French government and its policies. For France's most powerful ally, he had recrimination: "The U.S. wishes to hold in check the Soviet block--but not engage its own troops . . .They sent money and material to Indo-China--but left the French to do the fighting. They are ready to arm any country to fight the Russians--and if necessary command their forces for them!" For U.S. Secretary of State Dulles, he had sarcasm and condescension: "When Mr. Foster Dulles conjured up in Paris the ghost of a dramatic revision of American policy ... I am sure he could not help smiling. With the same smile, I answer him today: 'Do not mind us, dear friend. Go right ahead.' "

For the European Army, he had cold fury: "If ratified, [the treaty] would wrest from France her sovereignty for 50 years, which means forever . . . and would transfer to the American supreme commander the full right of deciding how France would be defended ... It would dissolve France by merging her with vanquished Germany." For the French who support EDC, he had a threat: if the plan is approved, there will ensue "a state of permanent revolt" in France.

"Everybody Obeyed Me." De Gaulle's followers serenaded him with cries of delight and hand clapping, but most of all, they wanted to hear him on the issue then shaking all France. What about the affair of Marshal Juin? Two-star General de Gaulle placed seven-star Marshal Juin in his niche--"a great military chief who led to victory . . . the army I had confided to him"--and noted that the anti-EDC sentiments espoused by Juin (TIME, April 12) had been De Gaulle's for a long time. The Laniel government--with its "unspeakable mediocrity"--had no justification for firing the marshal.

Then, from the back of the hall, a non-Gaullist interrupted: "When you were head of the provisional government, would you have allowed a general officer --even a Marshal of France--to refuse to come at your order?"

Charles de Gaulle's face flushed. A huge fist crashed down on the table. "I," he stormed, "was France. I was the state, the government. I spoke in the name of France. I was the independence and sovereignty of France . . . That is why everybody obeyed me!" Toward the back of the room, he barked out: "Don't ask me any more questions like that!"

A follower spoke up. Would the general participate in Paris' great Tenth Anniversary Liberation observance on May 8? "How could I participate, I who have nothing official about me?" said he. Then the long arms stretched out in the old gesture. No, he would observe "the victory which it was my honor to bring to France" in his own way -- not on May 8, but on May 9, the Feast Day of Joan of Arc. "I shall go to the Arch of Triumph ... I will arrive alone -- without followers . . . I will stand there -- alone. I will salute the Unknown Soldier -- alone."

But not quite all alone, it seemed: "I ask the people to be there to mark their remembrance of what was done to save the independence of France, which they intend to preserve. I ask the veterans of both wars and of Indo-China to surround the monument. The garrison of Paris will have to be there for honors and the sounding of trumpets, the glorious police of Paris to keep order. All of us ... will speak not a single word, will utter not a single cry. Above the calm of this immense silence will float the soul of France."

Charles de Gaulle stepped down from the dais and slowly, tiredly walked away.

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