Precisely at 3 o'clock one afternoon last week, unseen hands pulled aside a pair of raspberry silk curtains in the Elysee Palace's jampacked Salle des Fêtes and, as if propelled by clockwork, a looming, cigar-shaped figure appeared in the royal box overlooking the room. For the fourth time in the two years since he took power in France, Charles de Gaulle had summoned the press to hear him expound his policies and plans.
De Gaulle's prose seemed as ringing as ever as he began with a proclamation of national self-confidence: "Agitation, spreading throughout the world and tremulously reflected by all...
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