Foreign News: The Tall Pincushion

It is one measure of Charles de Gaulle's declining prestige among France's restless intellectuals that they now feel free to make De Gaulle himself a pincushion for barbed French satire. The shafts fly at him from right, left and center. On radio, television and in Montmartre cellars, the traditional chansonniers gibe irreverently at De Gaulle's big-power pretensions and the docility of his Cabinet. A favorite target is Premier Michel Debré, who is depicted, not altogether incorrectly, as a puppet and errand boy. One chansonnier lyric has De Gaulle asking Debré the time. Debré's...

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