PARIS (AP) — Warmly welcomed by Charles de Gaulle, President Nixon talked privately for more than two hours with the French leader Friday, then joined him and 90 others for dinner at Elysee Palace.
The two presidents’ discussions were described as frank and cordial. The White House press secretary, Ronald L. Ziegler, said Nixon “feels it was a good start,” and a French spokesman reported “a good beginning.”
The talks continue Saturday. On Sunday Nixon returns to Rome to see Pope Paul VI, and face possible new demonstrations. The Vatican has expressed concern about the possibility of embarrassment through new action by the crowds which on Thursday gave Rome its worst rioting in years.
Paris demonstrators against Nixon staged hit-and-run strikes all over the city Friday, breaking windows of American business firms and throwing eggs at the President’s motorcade. At nightfall a small group attacked the offices of International Business Machines, broke four display windows and damaged a computer valued at $2 million.
Cries Heard
There were cries of “Peace in Vietnam,” and “Nixon Murderer.”
In both Rome and Paris many demonstrators, mustered under Communist leadership, have used the Nixon visit to display feelings against the Vietnam war, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Italian and French governments.
De Gaulle himself has pulled his military forces out of NATO and insisted that the Vietnam war was evil. Such topics, and a broader look at Europe, were presumed to be part of the Nixon-De Gaulle discussions that went on for 2 hours and 10 minutes Friday, with only interpreters present.
A separate discussion of prospects for peace in the Middle East, was held by the U.S. and French foreign secretaries, William P. Rogers and Michel Debre.
Seeks De Gaulle Aid
Nixon had set the tone for the meeting by declaring on his arrival from Rome that he came to France seeking De Gaulle’s aid in efforts “to build a new sense of Western purpose” and to seek a “just and lasting peace.”
“The problems of the world in which we live are too difficult to repeat the old slogans or discuss the old quarrels,” Nixon said in his greeting at Orly Airport. “What we seek is to find those new roads which will lead to cooperation and to peace and freedom for all the people of the world.”
The pageantry at a state welcome gave way to the informality of a waving, hand-shaking American chief of state before the talks began.
The crowds who welcomed Nixon to Paris were friendly, but the outpouring was far from massive. The Communist party had called for anti-Nixon demonstrations when he arrived and many citizens stayed away fearing violence, informants said.
Demonstration
A demonstration was held during Nixon’s motor trip into the French capital. A group of young people crowded behind police barriers shouted ant-American slogans and scattered leaflets demanding an end to the Vietnam war. Police quickly broke up the demonstration and hauled off some of the demonstrators.
At another point along the route, youths shouted “U.S. assassin!”
But the crowd was mainly friendly, and Nixon ordered his limousine stopped when he saw girls along the Champs Elysee twirling parasols of Stars and Stripes fabrics. To the dismay of his security guard, the President walked over and shook hands with the teen-age girls.
At the Arc de Triomphe, Nixon stood with eyes closed during a muffled roll of drums and placed a huge wreath of red, white and blue flowers at the memorial to France’s unknown soldier. After the ceremony he mingled with the solemn crowd of Americans and Frenchmen.
He grasped the hand of one French woman and told her: “We hope we can develop policies for peace and for the future so that we no longer will have this kind of ceremony.”
Nixon was to meet with a dissident ally on his visit here, but there was a friendly tone in De Gaulle’s welcoming speech which wound up with the phrase, “Long live the United States of America!”
It was cold and windy when the President arrived from Rome, but De Gaulle was coatless. Nixon had his blue overcoat aboard the airplane, but left it there.
The 78-year-old French leader greeted Nixon with a handshake and a smiling word of greeting. Then they walked along 300 feet of red carpet to the Salon de Honneur for their speeches, made without notes.
De Gaulle spoke in French of 200 years of friendship between the two nations. He said Nixon had come “so that we can state precisely our thoughts and our intentions on the subject of world affairs and so that you can enlighten us on your own views and projects.”
Nixon paid tribute to France as America’s oldest ally and friend.
“I come here at the conclusion of my European journey with the purpose of underlining our dedication to that relationship,” he said, “for the purpose of finding those areas in which we can continue work together for the future.”
Nixon said he looked forward to hearing De Gaulle’s judgment and counsel “on the great problems that divide the world, and your judgment as to how the United States can best play its role in helping to solve those problems.”
Nixon said that now, as never before, the need is not for unilateral decisions by one great power, but for the best wisdom that can be found to set “policies that will save freedom and maintain peace.”
He recalled the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Every man has two homes: France and his own.” De Gaulle smiled broadly.
This story was published in the March. 1, 1969, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
