Third Person Singular

Roaring down the Paris-Strasbourg highway two weeks ago, a 22-ton truck overturned and boxloads of books covered in blue imitation leather were scattered all over the road. Despite that slipup, the secret of the book was kept intact. Last week, when it was released well ahead of schedule, and without the usual publicity buildup, all France was surprised. One critic compared its impact to that of "a 75-ton meteorite," which, as it happens, is just about the weight of the 250,000-copy first edition of Memoirs of Hope: The Renewal, the first of three volumes of Charles de Gaulle's postwar reminiscences.

Written after his withdrawal from the presidency, the 308-page volume traces the period from 1958, when De Gaulle emerged from retirement, to 1962. In three days, the entire first edition was gone at $5 a copy.

The book is De Gaulle at his infuriating best. It overflows with the lofty certitude and self-confidence of a man who, without embarrassment, can refer to himself repeatedly in the third person. Of the 1958 Algiers uprising that brought him to power, he writes: "No one really doubted that the situation could have any other conclusion than De Gaulle." Describing the assassination attempt on him in August 1962, he notes: "Of the 150-odd bullets aimed at us, 14 strike our vehicle. Yet--none of us is hit. May De Gaulle therefore go on pursuing his road and his vocation!"

What may surprise many readers is that De Gaulle is almost as kind to his contemporaries.

ON DWIGHT EISENHOWER: "Doubtless he shares the somewhat elementary conviction animating the American people that the primordial mission of the United States derives from a decree from heaven, and its preponderance is a matter of right. But the President is not vain nor his manner intransigent. He is a man of lofty conscience, determined to judge only on the basis of facts and to decide only upon the advice of qualified people."

ON RICHARD NIXON (after a 1960 meeting): "In his rather strange post as Vice President, I find in him one of those outspoken and strong persons on whom one feels one could count in serious matters if one day he acquired a position of first rank."

ON JOHN F. KENNEDY: "Without the crime which killed him, he would have had the time to mark his era . . . A man whose value, age and just ambition endowed him with vast hopes." On Viet Nam, he warned the young President: "The more you involve yourself there against Communism, the more the Communists will appear like champions of national independence . . . Step by step you will get bogged down in a bottomless military and political slough."

ON KHRUSHCHEV: "During a walk in the park we go aboard a boat. Khrushchev shouts, 'Kosygin, your turn to row, as usual!' I ask the Soviet Premier, 'But when do you work? You are constantly traveling or granting long interviews. What time do you have left for studying your dossiers?' Khrushchev replied: 'But I don't work. A Central Committee decree prescribes that after 65--I am 66 years old--one works only six hours a day four days a week. That is just enough for my trips and my audiences. They don't need me. The "plan" has settled things in advance.' Then, pointing to Kosygin rowing, 'Le plan, c'est lui!' "

ON DAVID BEN-GURION: "The existence of Israel seems justified to me, [but] I feel Israel must show great caution toward the Arabs." Advising Ben-Gurion against expanding Israel's territory at Arab expense, he says: "Do not exaggerate! Subdue your pride, which, as Aeschylus says, 'is the son of happiness and devours his father.' "

Glaring Omission. For all the insights and meticulous exposition, there is one striking omission. There is almost no reference to President Georges Pompidou, De Gaulle's principal aide during the period covered by the book and his Premier for six years. Some cynics suspect, in fact, that De Gaulle deliberately rushed publication (the book was scheduled to appear two days before his 80th birthday on Nov. 22) primarily to steal headlines from Pompidou, who was visiting Moscow. He succeeded. The biggest story in France was not Pompidou's tour but De Gaulle's book. There is, however, at least one consolation for Pompidou. Awaiting him when he returns to the Elysee Palace this week will be a specially printed copy of De Gaulle's new volume bearing the phrase, "Especially printed for . . ." Only 16 others are in existence, directed to such luminaries as Pope Paul, Mamie Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth and Nikita Khrushchev.

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