Hailed in the press as Karl der Grosse and Charles I, Emperor of Europe, President de Gaulle last week capped his historic, hugely successful state visit to West Germany with a momentous confession. Speaking for once as a citizen rather than as the voice of France, Charles de Gaulle revealed that he himself, through "the grandfather of my maternal grandfather," a barber-surgeon who served in Napoleon's army, has been one-sixteenth German all these years.
After bestowing this bouquet on his hosts, the General flew home in a mood to make sure that France's new union with Germany does not...