No one has a larger stake in the aprés-De Gaulle era than Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou, 56, the onetime professor of literature and investment banker whom De Gaulle thrust untutored into French politics as his premier in 1962. The only man in his Cabinet that the general deigns to call by his first name (everyone else, both friend and foe, refers to the premier as "Pompon"), the bushy-browed Pompidou has long been De Gaulle's unspoken choice to succeed him. De Gaulle would never, of course, detract from his own image as France's absolute ruler...
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