Visit from a Rude Emperor

Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev made his first trip abroad last week since he jostled Nikolai Podgorny out of the Soviet presidency (TIME, June 6) and added that largely honorary title to his other calling-card credits. On a three-day visit to France, Brezhnev frequently behaved less like a President than like an emperor.

Instead of first meeting privately with President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, as the carefully prepared schedule called for, Brezhnev broke protocol, summoning a number of ministers and other aides from both sides to his temporary residence, Chateau Rambouillet. the luxurious 14th century castle 33 miles southwest of Paris. Thereupon he launched into a 2 1/2-hr. dissertation on detente and disarmament. Brezhnev defended the Soviet Union as the only country in the world that had incorporated the principles of the Helsinki summit in its constitution.

Not Pleased. At times Brezhnev's manner turned into downright discourtesy. On past state visits Brezhnev, known as a car buff, had received an automobile as a present. This time the French decided to give him not one, but two: a Matra Simca Bagheera sports model and a Matra Rancho cross-country station wagon. But the new Soviet President was not pleased with the color of the trim on the wagon's seats (tan) and its exterior (green). Mortified French officials rushed the vehicle back to its manufacturer, where assemblymen worked frantically on reupholstery (brown) and a new paint job (blue).

No less rude was Brezhnev's decision to pay an unscheduled visit to Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris and Giscard's Gaullist archrival. Rather pettily, Giscard had planned to ignore Chirac, but the cunning mayor wrote Brezhnev asking him to stop by. Brezhnev was only too happy to accommodate Chirac, embarrass Giscard and do a little meddling in French politics. Gaullist officials gleefully celebrated their political victory. "The principle has been established." crowed one. "Now Chirac will see every visiting chief of state."

Ironically, France's leading Communist was every bit as anxious to avoid Brezhnev as Chirac, its leading antiCommunist, was to receive him. The French party boss, Georges Marchais, striving to burnish his image as a moderate Eurocommunist, announced that he "did not need to see Brezhnev every time he comes to Paris." Since the Kremlin is currently intensifying its criticism of Western parties (see following story), Brezhnev was quick to take the hint. The two did not meet.

In his meandering public statements on detente, Brezhnev was clearly talking as much to Jimmy Carter as to his host. The French President, who later quoted Brezhnev as having emphasized that U.S.-Soviet relations were "in a difficult phase," answered back on his own. Military detente, he said, must be accompanied by "ideological detente," i.e., a relaxation of non-military tension between East and West --an idea that infuriated Brezhnev during Giscard's 1975 visit to Moscow.

In the end. the two leaders managed to sign three declarations--a general policy review, a document on detente and one on nuclear proliferation. The detente agreement was deemed most significant by diplomats: Brezhnev accepted that respect for human rights should be one of the "bases for a profound improvement in Franco-Soviet relations." For his part. Giscard later made it clear that he did not advocate focusing public attention on "individual cases" of claimed violations. That was an implied criticism of President Carter's letter to Soviet Dissident Andrei Sakharov.

For all the diplomatic haggling, the chief question in the final ceremonies was: How would Brezhnev's titles be ranked on the documents? Answer: Party Secretary first, then President.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.