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Down Through Clouds. Kennedy had prepped well for the journey. After days of conferences with aides, he spent the holiday weekend resting at Hyannisport; there, on his 44th birthday, he flipped through De Gaulle's memoirs, scoured a stack of position papers on how to deal with both the French and the Russians. In Manhattan before his flight, he summed up the purpose of his trip at a dinner for the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation. "We go to many countries," he said, "but we sing the same song, and that is: this country wants peace and this country wants freedom."
Then, while it was still dawn in his own country, President John F. Kennedy's scarlet-nosed Boeing 707 jet (code name: "Air Force One") angled down through the pattern of clouds that covered northern France, and it came time for John Kennedy to prove that the words of the song had real meaning. Five minutes ahead of schedule, the huge craft eased onto the runway at Paris' Orly Airport. A light haze filtered the bright sun, and there was no hint of rain to come later in the day; except for the chill (58°), it was Paris at its seductive springtime best. As the jet taxied toward the terminal, Kennedy pulled up the knot in his tie, brushed down a stray lock of hair; Jackie Kennedy carefully settled her pillbox hat—blue, to match the spring coat created by Designer Oleg Cassini—on top of her well-combed, bouffant hairdo. Press Secretary Pierre Salinger came forward with a last-minute report on details of the arrival ceremony; Kennedy listened, nodded his approval.
When the presidential plane wheeled to a stop in front of the terminal, the drums of a French air force band rolled out a rhythmic welcome. Dressed in a double-breasted grey suit, the Savior of France led his welcoming party—including Madame de Gaulle, U.S. Ambassador to Paris James Gavin, France's Ambassador in Washington Herve Alphand—along 75 yards of red carpet to the debarking ramp. With a grin and a choppy, campaign-style wave. Kennedy stepped from the plane, Jackie a pace behind him. When the President of the U.S. and the President of France shook hands, De Gaulle gave greeting in his stilted, seldom-used English: "Have you made a good aerial voyage?" When Kennedy, grinning, answered yes, De Gaulle said: "Ah, that's good.''
As the crowd cheered and waved tiny flags, the two Presidents strode toward the ornate, gilded Salon d'Honneur for the formal speeches of welcome. Talking all the way, Kennedy started to walk past the polished guard of honor. Placing a fatherly hand on Jack's arm, De Gaulle turned his guest toward the flags, and the band played La Marseillaise and The Star-Spangled Banner.
"Daughter of Europe." Kennedy came shrewdly prepared to humor the political mysticism of his imperial host. His words of greeting in the salon carefully echoed phrases from De Gaulle's own pronouncements. "I come from America," he said, "the daughter of Europe, to France, which is America's oldest friend. But I come today, not because of merely past ties and past friendship, but because the present relationship between France and the United States is essential for the preservation of freedom around the globe."