DIPLOMACY: Cher Val

A colorful visit boosts a flowering European friendship

Not since Charles de Gaulle stepped onto a red carpet at Bonn's Wahn Airport in 1962 had a French President made an official state visit to West Germany. But when Valéry Giscard d'Estaing alighted from his presidential Mystère jet last week, the 21-gun salute that greeted him merely punctuated the close Franco-German ties that have grown particularly strong since Giscard and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt came to power within eleven days of each other in 1974. Although it rained during most of the five-day visit, there were few visible clouds over what...

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