"As You Would Greet Me"

The President of France, as well as the Queen of England, was learning that a state visit to a volatile land can involve some risks. French officials had decided that the chances of trouble during Charles de Gaulle's trip to Latin America were minimal. If his health could take the strain (a question to everyone except the astonishing old man himself), the trip should provide a string of modest but unbroken successes. After two weeks and six countries, the educated guess was more or less on target. In the third week, trouble materialized. De Gaulle's visit to Argentina was a bomb.

Rowdy Links. Supporters of exiled Dictator Juan Peron put De Gaulle precisely where he did not wish to be--smack in the middle of Argentina's violent internal politics. From Madrid, Peron told his supporters to "greet De Gaulle as you would greet me." That produced a mob scene and a rowdy attempt to link De Gaulle with Peron, presenting both as champions of the third force, independent of either East or West. The obvious purpose was to discomfit the regime of President Arturo Illia, which has cast its lot with the U.S.

No sooner had De Gaulle's Caravelle jet touched down at Buenos Aires' Aeroparque than shrieking crowds of Peronistas hoisted banners proclaiming "De Gaulle, Peron, tercera position" (third position). But that was nothing compared to the swirling mobs in the central industrial city (primarily autos) of Cordoba, which De Gaulle visited for five uncomfortable hours.

Massing along the motorcade's route, hundreds of Peronistas broke through police lines and swirled around the presidential Cadillac, hooting at Illia and cheering for De Gaulle and Peron. At one point, the surging crowd jammed the handlebar of an escorting motorcycle through the Cadillac's left rear window, slightly cutting Illia. The limousine carrying the First Ladies was forced onto the sidewalk. An hour later, rioting broke out again near where De Gaulle was to lunch. This time, police submachine guns sprayed bullets over the crowd. Tear gas filled the square. Fire hoses broke up charging groups while police and firemen were pelted by stones. The toll: 26 injured, six by gunshot.

"Them & Them Alone." Illia, of course, was badly embarrassed (Cordoba is his home town), and once again Argentina was shown to be a sorely divided nation lacking leadership. But De Gaulle was on the spot too, and there was no satisfactory way for him to get off it. Any wave to the Peronista crowd would be interpreted as support of anti-government forces, and he had no desire to make a formal anti-Peron statement. He did the best he could under the circumstances, retreated into the icy aloofness he has been striving to avoid. "The matter concerns them and them alone," he told an aide. He never mentioned the Peronistas in public.

At last De Gaulle was able to fly on to less troubled soil. In neighboring Paraguay, President Alfredo Stroessner gave him a warm and relaxed 41 hours. In Uruguay, 25,000 people braved a pelting rain to line the streets of Montevideo; visiting a French high school, De Gaulle was moved to tears when a 13-year-old girl said in French: "Through years of study, we have learned to love France." In Brazil, which he visits this week, plans were under way for what Brazilians hope will be the biggest welcome of all.

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