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With the arrival of French airpower in N'Djamena, the U.S. announced that it was withdrawing the two AW ACS surveillance planes that it had sent to the area a month ago in the hope that Mitterrand would intervene directly. The Administration feared that if Chad fell to Gaddafi, the Libyan leader would be in a position to threaten such U.S. allies as Egypt and, especially, the Sudan. The AW ACS planes never took part in the Chadian war, but they became an unfortunate symbol of the differences between Paris and Washington over how to deal with the crisis.
In his interview, Mitterrand tried to put to rest the U.S.-French dispute that had flared over the question of Chad. "Let's sum things up by saying that we have not ignored the Americans, and they have concerned themselves considerably with us," he said. "We have met, we have talked. Mr. Reagan has written me, I have responded to him. It's all a question of measure. I think things are now back in order." Perhaps they were in Paris and Washington, but in Chad things were still very much in disorder. ∙