A Letter From The Publisher, May 31, 1976

While France's President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was touring the U.S. last week, many Americans were reading his views on their country at 200 in a new TIME feature, inaugurated in last week's issue, called "Message to America." Giscard's message—which, among other things, is that the U.S. is seen as a land of "enterprise, initiative, movement" and "prodigious resiliency"—was the first in a series of letters written for TIME by foreign leaders that we plan to publish periodically as part of our Bicentennial observance. The series is intended to offer Americans a rare perspective...