POUR LA FRANCE

Next week's most distinguished foreign visitor to Washington: France's Premier Rene Pleven.

Born: April 15, 1901, at Rennes, Brittany.

Height: 6 ft. 2 in., making him France's tallest politician after General Charles de Gaulle (6 ft. 4 in.).

Education: Doctorate in law, University of Paris.

Business Career: After flunking the difficult oral exams for a financial branch of the civil service, he entered private enterprise. Worked in Quebec for a telephone company, in Paris for U.S. investment bankers Blair & Co. Highly successful. As late as 1939, Pleven said: "Politics do not interest me."

Political Career: World War II forced him into politics.

In 1940 he joined De Gaulle's Free French movement.

Helped the late General Jacques Leclerc rally French Equatorial Africa to the Free French banner. Became Commissioner of Colonies, later Minister of Finance. Broke with De Gaulle in 1947, forming his own small party, Union Democratique et Sociale de la Resistance, which stands between the Radical Socialists and the Socialists, favors limited industrial nationalization and state controls. Was Minister of National Defense under Premier Georges Bidault, has been Premier since July it in a moderate-leftist coalition government whose strength is much less than the sum of its parts.

After a decade of politicking, Pleven quips: "I have lost my innocence, but I have not lost my integrity."

Private Life: Prefers his modest apartment in Paris' Auteuil quarter, but spends most of his long working days at his official residence, the Hotel Matignon. He and his wife Anne have two married daughters, six granddaughters. His favorite relaxation: walking on the Breton seashore.

Purpose of His Visit: Pleven & Truman will discuss U.S. aid for Indo-China, the Korean situation, French and German rearmament, a possible conference with Russia. Pleven laid himself open to Gaullist criticism of second-fiddling when he did not accompany Britain's Prime Minister Clement Attlee to Washington in December. Now he hopes to regain face for France.

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