IT was almost exactly a quarter of a century ago 1 (Aug. 4, 1941) that Charles de Gaulle made his first appearance on TIME'S cover. Then he was just emerging as a world figure--in wartime London, rallying his countrymen in and outside occupied France to his Free French cause. "In the field," said the closing paragraph of that first De Gaulle cover story, he has "only 40,000 men, but in France he is building a greater army . , . If Vichy and Hitler begin to crumble, the Free French in France will have not merely a fifth column. They may have the nation."

After that rather prophetic beginning, TIME over the years kept close watch as the towering figure of De Gaulle strode through history. This week, as he makes his eighth appearance as the cover subject, those previous cover stories stand as perceptive punctuation marks in a most remarkable career:

May 29, 1944--on the eve of Dday: "The fact is that De Gaulle the man does not amount to a great deal--now. The De Gaulle who counts is De Gaulle the symbol--the half-seen, half-known figure who to millions of Frenchmen personifies the French will to survive ... to restore France to greatness."

Nov. 17, 1947--as De Gaulle returned to the political scene: "With a lover's passion and a surgeon's skill, Charles de Gaulle listens closely to the heartbeat of France."

May 26, 1958--as he was again about to resume power: "He would make France a difficult ally."

Jan. 5, 1959--Man of the Year, for weathering the Algerian crisis and setting in motion long-overdue internal reforms: "Above all, he has given Frenchmen back their pride, swept away the miasma of self-contempt that has hung over France since its ignominious capitulation to Hitler in 1940."

Dec. 7, 1962--after his sweeping victory at the polls: "The massive endorsement of De Gaulle also stirred misgivings. For if he had been a cantankerous, willful ally at the head of a divided nation, what headaches were in store now that he was the absolute leader of a united France?"

Feb. 8, 1963--having vetoed Britain's admission to the Common Market and shaken NATO to its roots, De Gaulle was seeking to set the West off on "a new and obscure destination."

This week's story, written by Robert Jones and edited by Edward Hughes, focuses on le grand Charles's trip to the Soviet Union, but reaches well beyond for a much wider scope. In TIME'S pattern and practice, it is what the French call a tour d'horizon. At a time when the policies and programs of nations East and West are undergoing great if often subtle change, it studies the meaning and thrust of these new forces and explores the Gaullist question of whether an era is approaching that may see all Europe in one part.

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