World Notes Diplomacy

The visit was hastily planned and largely unwanted. There were no flashy motorcades, no wreath layings and no banquets. Yet from the moment that Polish Leader Wojciech Jaruzelski shook hands with French President Francois Mitterrand at Paris' Elysee Palace last week, he had achieved what he sought: the stamp of international respectability from a major West European leader. Mitterrand thus became the first Western head of state to receive Jaruzelski since the Polish leader crushed the independent trade union movement, Solidarity, and imposed martial law on the country four years ago this week.

Mitterrand's own Socialist Party did not conceal its consternation over Jaruzelski's visit. After the President departed for the Caribbean island of Martinique, Premier Laurent Fabius caused an outcry by publicly taking issue with the President over Jaruzelski's visit, admitting that he was "personally troubled" by it. Mitterrand reportedly was irritated by his subordinate's remarks, but after a transatlantic conversation, the President rejected Fabius' offer to resign. Jaruzelski, for his part, termed his 80-minute tete- a-tete with Mitterrand "useful and sincere."