Diplomacy Muted Visit

What was Gorbylove in West Germany was more a case of Gorbylike in France. Ever the skeptics, Parisians welcomed the Soviet leader for the second time in four years but failed to shower him with the kind of ecstatic hero worship he received a month ago in Bonn. During a curiously muted three-day visit, French commentators noted, Mikhail Gorbachev disappointed "a lot of people who were just waiting to become admirers."

In fact, opinion polls showed that while 66% of the French approved of Gorbachev, a little more than half believed he would not survive long in office. Gorbachev dismissed any notion he might soon disappear from the scene, but his practiced joviality slipped occasionally to reveal an inner tenseness, perhaps as a result of the mounting challenges to his authority at home. Gorbachev's schedule was arranged so that he could keep in close touch with Moscow.

At least the Soviet leader recruited President Francois Mitterrand as an advocate of perestroika. "It is the duty of the democracies," said Mitterrand, to help Soviet reforms succeed.

France is doing its share. The two leaders met for 15 hours to cement a relationship Mitterrand hopes will temper West Germany's growing dominance. They signed 22 agreements, including plans for a joint probe of Mars.

Gorbachev's main business, as usual, was promoting his favorite diplomatic theme of a "common European home," through which he seeks to place the Soviet Union in the Continent's political mainstream. Mitterrand gave at least partial credence to such a concept, saying that for the first time in 50 years, Europeans have a chance to take "the path of reconciliation." Many French remain dubious. Warns former Foreign Minister Jean Francois Poncet: "Gorbachev's common European home is a bid to engulf the European Community in a wider enterprise dominated by the Soviet Union."