Homage at the Arch

This Frenchman, who has so much order in his mind and so little in his acts, this logician who doubts everything . . . --Charles de Gaulle,

The Army of the Future

It is now two decades since Captain de Gaulle's book on the plane-and-tank war of the future appeared, to be carefully studied by the Germans and to be dismissed as a "collection of witticisms" by the French general staff. Since then, De Gaulle has become a hero, symbol and leader--and, subsequently, a frustrated strongman, waiting for a call that never came. France's millions of logicians doubted even a strongman's ability to cure things.

Last week, in observance of the ninth anniversary of V-E day, General de Gaulle dramatically appeared, as he had promised he would, at Paris' Arc de Triomphe to pay homage "alone" to France's Unknown Soldier. It was two days after the fall of Dienbienphu, and the worried police made the biggest show of strength since the anti-Ridgway riots in 1952. More than 10,000 steel-helmeted police and armed guards assembled, truckloads of mobile guards blocked every sidestreet, and police aircraft hovered overhead. A full hour before De Gaulle's appearance, a crowd of 15,000 gathered behind the police barriers. When De Gaulle's open black car arrived, a band struck up the Marseillaise. On his uniform the tall, greying man wore only one decoration, the Cross of Lorraine. He saluted the flag, stood bowed for a minute before the eternal flame. Then he was driven away.

Some in the crowd shouted "Vive De Gaulle!" and "De Gaulle to power!" But many, on this sunshiny day, simply murmured: "How he has aged!" and continued their Sunday stroll.

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