Discouraging Visit

At the arm of Chairman Walter George of the Foreign Relations Committee, French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau last week walked into the Senate chamber to deliver a little speech saying how glad he was to be in the U.S. Already his text had been passed out to the press ("the honor you have done me, and through me to my country, by inviting me to say a few words . . ."). But Christian Pineau never got to the rostrum. The State Department had neglected to tell the secretary of the Senate that he was coming; there were only twelve Senators on the floor, and it was too near lunch time to round up a quorum. Apologetically Walter George hustled Pineau off to lunch with Senate leaders and several members of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Unintentional as the slight was, it was a symbolic forerunner of a notable lack of enthusiasm on the part of the U.S. as Secretary of State Dulles and Pineau sat down in Foggy Bottom for informal discussions that stretched through three days. Net results:

P: Pineau argued that it would be an "exaggeration" to insist upon German reunification as the test of the new Soviet sincerity; Dulles termed German unity in freedom essential.

P: Socialist Pineau proposed sweeping new cultural and economic exchanges with the Iron Curtain countries, e.g., selling French electronic equipment and jet transport planes to the Communist empire; Dulles thought that exchange visits should be handled on a "selective basis," that controls on strategic trade with the Communists should be reviewed item by item.

P: Pineau suggested that the U.S. allot 6% of its foreign aid through the United Nations to avoid any East-West competition; Dulles thought this unrealistic.

In all, Pineau and Dulles could register agreement on only three specifics: 1) the Middle East crisis should be handled through the U.N.; 2) foolproof inspection and controls must precede disarmament; 3) NATO cooperation in nonmilitary fields should be improved. Pineau got in ten minutes in Walter Reed with the President (who asked about the situation in Algeria), and then drove downtown to address an audience of members and guests of the National Press Club.

"Systematic mistrust no longer seems as necessary," he said, summing up the cold war, because the Russians may now be moving "towards a rapprochement with the concepts of the West." Pineau failed even to sway several members of his own diplomatic entourage. As he flew back to Paris to face an uproar of press criticism, a press attache of the French embassy in Washington quietly passed the word that during his visit Christian Pineau had frequently spoken for himself and not for France.

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