Cruising Comfortably

The worst thing that happened to Charles de Gaulle last week was that an aide dropped a briefcase full of papers into the water as he hopped from a launch onto the quay at Valparaiso, Chile. It hardly mattered. After 14 days of his 27-day Latin American trip, De Gaulle had it all down pat, and was moving at what the French call vitesse de croisiere, comfortable cruising speed.

On with the Dance. The incredible old soldier actually looked healthier than when he started the tour, despite Paris' fears that the long journey might prove too strenuous for a man of 73. But the southern exposure obviously agreed with him, and he was feeling so well that he complained about one day's schedule not being full enough. Seasoned De Gaullologists were startled to see him hugely enjoying a colorfully costumed Bolivian "devil dance," despite his dis dain for things folkloric. They were stunned when in Chile he actually responded with a big wave to photographers' shouts for just one more.

No stirring agreements were an nounced, no plans for massive French aid were drawn, but that is not what De Gaulle is after. Starting his second week with a one-day stay in Bolivia, he echoed the note he has sounded all along: France's intense interest in Latin America, their common cultural bonds, and his wish for "independent" nations free from foreign hegemonies. Never once did De Gaulle mention the U.S. by name, but his meaning was clear. "Let the powers who have appropriate means bring their contribution to the development of those less privileged, without any interference whatsoever in anybody's affairs," said De Gaulle in Bolivia. He repeated it in Chile, after a restful two-clay sea voyage down the long coast to Valparaiso. From Chile, De Gaulle's Caravelle jet swept on across the Andes to Argentina and the seventh stop on his ten-nation tour. In Buenos Aires, internal politics reared its head when followers of ex-Dictator Juan Peron began cheering and chanting so loudly that they all but drowned out De Gaulle.

A Clasp, a Pat. Unlike the preceding week, Latin America's leaders seemed less reserved about De Gaulle and his suggestions for a Latin bond. The crowds everywhere remained heartening, pressing in to cheer el general frances with such enthusiasm that De Gaulle time and again sidestepped his security men to clasp a hand or pat a head. And that, after all, was why he had come --to be seen and remembered, to reinvigorate the French presence.

The U.S. viewed it all with relaxed interest. De Gaulle's France could hardly compete with the U.S. in Latin America. But Washington would, if anything, find it helpful if France put some in-.vestments or trained manpower into Latin America. As U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Douglas Henderson told French diplomats privately and frankly: "We cannot collide with France in South America. It is too big a continent--and there is too much to do."

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