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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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071789
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07178900.013
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 68DIPLOMACYMuted VisitFrance plays skeptical host to Mikhail Gorbachev
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."