Symbol of Pride

After a welcoming flourish on its gleam ing, 40-in. herald trumpets, the Army band swung smartly into Waltz of the Flowers, and the two old soldiers in mufti stepped out to review their honor guard. Both were out of step with the music, but neither seemed to notice. The niceties of military precision were a remote problem last week to President Dwight Eisenhower and his guest. President Charles de Gaulle. The man of France was making his first visit to the U.S. in 15 years, not as a soldier but as a statesman, not as a pleader but as a person of power. His tall, awkward angularity was a symbol of his own and his country's pride: the re-emergent spirit of France.

Politely, De Gaulle joined in the full panoply of ceremony, listened with evident pleasure while his comrade in arms from World War II welcomed him at Washington's International Airport "in be half of the American people." But given his own turn at the microphone, the visitor was quick to remind his audience that there was a summit meeting coming. "A grave international debate is going to take place in three weeks," said he. "Before joining this debate it is necessary for me to consult with the President of the U.S. -- this dear, illustrious man on whom so much of the survival of the free world depends." De Gaulle seemed almost relieved when the welcome was over, when he was safely in the presidential limousine, rolling smoothly past the kids with their Easter outfits and their box Brownies, past the fluttering Tricolors--and on to Blair House under a sun as bright as the Cote d'Azur.

Later that afternoon, after he made his U.S. arrival official by placing a wreath on the tomb of Arlington's unknown servicemen. General de Gaulle drove down Pennsylvania Avenue to his first official White House conference. When he came out 75 minutes later, his long, solemn face intimidated even Washington's hard-case press corps. Here was the Western statesman who had last had contact with Khrushchev, the man who was to play host to next month's summit conference--and the newsmen were almost mute. Surely De Gaulle had reported to Ike on his conversations with Khrushchev, on his belief that worthwhile concessions can be wrung from the Soviet leader at the summit--but no one could think of a question. "Why didn't you ask him?'' a discouraged U.S. newsman snapped at a visiting Frenchman. "He does not talk," answered the Frenchman with a shrug.

But next day, in a carefully prepared, televised press conference, De Gaulle did talk. Calmly, clearly, he spelled out his stand on a variety of summit subjects--just as he had done in Ottawa only a few days before. Items:

EAST-WEST RELATIONS: "If we make some progress in this matter, the atmosphere can change, at least a little. Solutions to problems that look impossible today may become possible."

BERLIN: "I see no possible solution [at the summit].''

DISARMAMENT: "A detente can only come with disarmament. It should focus on the reciprocal control of missiles and strategic aircraft and the ships that carry nuclear arms." (Notably omitted: any support for the U.S.-British hope of a nuclear test-ban agreement.)

KHRUSHCHEV: "He is a great personality. He has been marked by his struggles. He has seen that the problems of the world are not as simple as one thinks when one looks at them from only one point of view. He is aware of problems and people, and he is well informed.''

FOREIGN AID: The world's "fundamental and great problem'' is "to bring two billion men out of poverty and in the direction of economic progress.'' and the best way to get on with the job is a joint East-West cooperative program (a program that has no U.S. support).

The U.S. showed no signs of being disturbed at the obviously minor clashes on policy. Rather, the whole Washington program seemed aimed at convincing De Gaulle that the U.S. takes him at his full worth--perhaps in hopes that differences will thaw once he is so reassured. The official kid-glove treatment ranged from the right food at state dinners (simple meals, no sauce on the steaks) to carefully planned walking requirements (since he is too vain to wear his thick glasses a moment more than necessary, De Gaulle's every step in strange territory is a source of trouble).

At week's end, De Gaulle and Ike clattered up to Gettysburg in an Army helicopter for a brief visit to the Eisenhower farm and a trip to the adjoining national monument that is a shrine to professional soldiers the world over: the Gettysburg battlefield. From Gettysburg they flew to Camp David for further talk. Just how much progress was made toward ironing out what minor differences still divide the U.S. and France will probably not come clear until President de Gaulle himself plays host to the summit session in Paris.

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