The squat, blue-jowled man with the broken nose and the meaty shoulders of a middleweight boxer pushed his way last week through a swirling crowd of aides, secretaries and Cabinet ministers waving papers at him. "If it can wait until July 20, keep it," he snapped. "If it can't wait, do it yourself."
At week's end, France's Premier Pierre Mendès-France had only 16 days left. His pledges were still only pledges. In Indo-China, where he had promised to get peace in 30 days, the French abandoned a third of the Red River Delta without a fight. From both sides of the Atlantic, apprehensive allies warned him against any attempt basically to alter EDC. Trouble flared in restive Tunisia and Morocco.
But in just two weeks in office, Mendès-France had already had more impact on France—and Europe—than any French Premier since De Gaulle. Here was a man who bluntly announced what he thought France should do, demanded authority to do it, and acted as if he meant to carry it out. After years of trimming and timidity, Mendès-France had struck off the deadhead of France's postwar malaise—immo bilisme. Whether his 30-day gamble gamble is won or lost, the French people had found in Mendès-France something that had long been denied them—leadership.
"We Must Choose." Mendès-France believed in himself. And last week, in hundreds of letters to newspapers and the government, Frenchmen declared their belief in him. "Your presence gives us comfort," wrote a pensioned widow. "A man who speaks to us with frankness and simplicity, you have restored confidence long lost to us," wrote a retired miller.
Mendès was frank to the point of bluntness. The nation, he said, had been living beyond its means. "For years, we have undertaken tasks beyond our strength," he said. If the crepes suzettes sizzled as lavishly as ever in Paris' chic restaurants, it had been because the economy was propped by U.S. aid, and kept in an artificial fever of inflation by governments which lacked the courage to face realities. France's military commitments were far beyond what its economy could support. Mendès insists: "We must choose"—a favorite phrase.
A year ago. Mendès told the National Assembly flatly: "France must limit her objectives, but attain them; establish a policy which is perhaps less ambitious than some would desire, but hold to it. Our aim must not be to give the illusion of grandeur, but to remake a nation whose word will be heard and respected."