Ronald Reagan had hoped to go to Bitburg buoyed by an important success in economic diplomacy. Instead, he departed from Bonn for the wreath-laying ceremony smarting from a fresh setback. His 2 1/2 days of discussions in the West German capital with the leaders of six other major industrial powers were always polite and often were even marked by effusive mutual compliments; no one wanted to add a public squabble about economics to the uproar over Bitburg. But there was no disguising the fact that French President Francois Mitterrand blocked Reagan from getting what he most wanted from the summit, the...
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