BRAZIL: Wind in the Chancelleries

Tattle, the high wind of diplomacy, blew hard through Brazil. It blew His Excellency Monsieur Baron General François Pierre Raoul d'Astier de la Vigerie, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire et Plenipotentiaire, right out of the French embassy. In less than a year De Gaulle's white-haired, one-legged, chain-smoking wartime air chief had been linked by gossip with three Brazilian society women, not to mention a French mistress. Such dedication to Franco-Brazilian amity won the gallant ambassador the added title of "Ambragador." Worst of all in Quai d'Orsay eyes, the Ambragador had entertained too lavishly, overdrawn his expense account. For the honor of France,...