FRANCE: Trouble on Mount Olympus

Increasingly irascible about his growing army of critics, France’s Charles de Gaulle last week pursued his lonely, proud way.

¶ At long last, Parliament received his blueprint for an all-French atomic striking force, currently known in France as the force de frappe. At a cost of $1.3 billion over five years, De Gaulle’s program would provide 50 medium-range bombers, a handful of atomic missiles and an atom-powered sub. The plan’s reception was hostile. Members of the finance and defense committees pointed out that such a meager atomic force would cost a lot of money but still not give France parity with the U.S. or the Soviets in the “atomic club.” Other critics pointed out that West Germany, by merely cooperating with NATO to create a European atomic striking force, could probably get at no cost Polaris missiles equipped with U.S. atomic warheads—and thus free the German economy to give France even bigger economic competition in the Common Market.

¶ Never hesitant about suspending magazines and newspapers that go too far in criticizing his Algerian policies, De Gaulle was even tougher last week on 142 writers, teachers, film stars and journalists (ranging from Leftist Existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre to Academy Award-winning Actress Simone Signoret), who signed a petition urging French soldiers to desert rather than take up arms against the Algerian rebels. Le Grand Charles decreed punishment rare in any country calling itself a democracy. Government employees who signed or support the petition, such as teachers, face suspension at one-third pay; actors and directors were forbidden employment in French radio and television or in state-run or state-subsidized theaters and films. Minister of Culture Andre Malraux (whose daughter and divorced wife were among the signers) was ordered to draft a bill denying state financial aid to any artist who signed the manifesto.

Commented France’s respected newsletter, Index Quotidien: “The Fifth Republic seems to have reached the critical stage of disenchantment and trial . . .”