Return to Paris

Beneath the lights of the Columbine as it sped through the night sky, U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships were joined with the Royal Navy in a patrol line across choppy North Atlantic seas. From Her Majesty's frigate Undaunted, which was with General Dwight Eisenhower at the Normandy beachhead in 1944, came a message out of the night: "Glad to have you with us--Undaunted we remain." For nearly 16 hours the Columbine flew at 13,000 feet or less so that the cabin pressure could be kept at sea level as a health precaution. President Dwight Eisenhower was returning to Paris, where an emotional welcome and the most portentous meeting of Western heads of state in 40 years awaited him.

From the instant his doctors approved the trip--"They tell me I can go," cried Ike to Press Secretary James Hagerty--the President drove himself hard, despite the fact that he was only 15 days away from his stroke. Just 45 minutes from Paris the Columbine got a message from U.S. officials that Paris was cold, with a 36DEG temperature and a cutting wind. Should the welcoming ceremonies at Orly airport be moved inside? Replied Eisenhower: negative.

"Think Gallantly." At Orly the President doffed his hat briefly during ruffles and flourishes, then, after consulting France's President Rene Coty, put it on again and stood at military salute during The Star-Spangled Banner and La Marseillaise. As he slowly trooped the line of a 280-man French air force honor guard, reporters noted that he seemed to be dragging his left foot, just slightly. Explained his physician, Dr. Howard McC. Snyder: "Sometimes he has that West Point [football] knee."

During his brief, warm speech at Orly, the President spoke slowly and carefully. "Of all the many great days of France," said he, "the one that lives brightest in my heart, and will remain forever indelible in my life, was that August day in 1944 when, after four long years, Paris again knew freedom and the joy that freedom brings . . . Today we live in one of those periods of test not only for France but all of France's friends and allies, my country among them. It is for us, together, to determine whether men shall continue to live in freedom and in dignity or whether they are to become mere vassals of an all-powerful state." Then, while a U.S. officer was still translating, the President moved to his bubble-top Lincoln (which had been sent over by ship and bore a French diplomatic plate).

"Vive Ike." The 45-minute ride from Orly was one that could touch the heart. Seven miles from the end, President Eisenhower ordered a black canvas section removed from the top of his car. He stood the rest of the way, face ruddy from the cold, hands waving or clasped above his head, his emotions plainly and deeply stirred. The caravan followed the route used by General Leclerc's liberation troops, down the old Avenue d'Orleans, past soccer players who broke off their game to stand at the roadside, past Fresnes prison, where the Germans had kept political prisoners during the Occupation, past a man with a pants leg empty and a red rosette in his buttonhole, past tiny houses and shops with red tile roofs, past Moroccan rug peddlers in native costume, along Avenue Briand, where Frenchmen stood six deep crying "Vive Ike," to the big stone U.S. embassy residence, where U.S. marines were just raising the presidential flag.

That afternoon the President conferred with Secretary of State Dulles about conversations Dulles had been holding with NATO leaders (see FOREIGN NEWS), worked on his major NATO speech for 45 minutes after Dulles left, took a short nap before a small private dinner (with Ambassador and Mrs. Amory Houghton, Dr. Snyder, Ike's staff secretary. General A. S. Goodpaster, and Major John Eisenhower). Sunday morning he attended special NATO services in the candlelit American Cathedral, heard John Foster Dulles read from the 46th Psalm: "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire." During the prayer, he cupped his head in his hands, resting on the back of the pew in front of him, was one of the last to raise his head when the prayer ended.

From the services he returned to the embassy residence for a quiet lunch and a breakneck schedule.

Later, taking time out for an hour-long meeting with French Premier Felix Gaillard, he went back to work on the speech he was to deliver in the historic Palais de Chaillot, intended to set the style and the scope of the whole conference.

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