FRANCE: Home to Paris

Two planes, bound on fateful missions, went opposite ways in Europe's troubled air last week. One plane was carrying General Charles de Gaulle to Moscow. The other carried his most formidable rival, Maurice Thorez, Secretary of the French Communist Party, from exile in Moscow to Paris. Three weeks ago De Gaulle had cleared the way by pardoning Thorez for military desertion.

At the VĂ©lodrome d'Hiver, Paris' dusty version of Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, 50,000 Frenchmen welcomed him. While pretty girls collected funds, tossed bouquets of red carnations at the guest of honor, the big meeting sang La Marseillaise (six times),...

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