The first test of French President Georges Pompidou's electoral promise of "continuity and opening" was the makeup of his Cabinet. It had to appease Gaullist hard-liners in the National Assembly while satisfying non-Gaullists' expectations of an authentic new look. The litmus was the fate of the general's Foreign Minister, Michel Debre, an unbending and abrasive loyalist and to both sides a symbol of extreme Gaullism. Pompidou persuaded him to accept the prestigious but politically insensitive Ministry of Defense. Then the President put together a Cabinet to his own taste, composed of twelve Gaullists...
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