France: Encore, Non

In a 20-minute TV speech last week, Charles de Gaulle made his first public address since the historic Jan. 14 press conference at which he barred Britain from Europe. As the baroque paragraphs unfolded, it became plain that France's President had not retreated from the policies that have divided the Western Alliance and halted the integration of Europe in the three months since. His views on key issues:

∙EUROPE. Political integration of Europe would "inevitably end in foreign domination" of the Continent. It would, in any case, be "incompatible with the rights and duties of the French Republic" to surrender sovereignty to a supranational Parliament, which De Gaulle disdainfully likened to an "Areopagus," the supreme court of ancient Athens. "In short, it seems to us essential that Europe should be Europe and France, France."

∙ENGLAND. With all due respect to "the great English people," De Gaulle firmly insisted that "union" of Europe, meaning apparently the Gaullist proposal for closer ties between governments, cannot wait for Britain. "One day, perhaps," England will be admitted to Europe—after it has "detached itself from its ties with the Commonwealth and the U.S.

-THE WESTERN ALLIANCE. The alliance is "indispensable so long as the threats and ambitions of the Soviets continue." While "conjugating" its defense with NATO, however, France "intends to remain its own master."

-NUCLEAR INDEPENDENCE. France's force de frappe is essential to "dissuade" would-be aggressors and "contribute to the defense of its allies, including—who knows? —America." For though the Americans "are our good allies, as we are theirs," in the event of nuclear war there is "immense and inevitable uncertainty" whether Russia and the U.S. would use nuclear weapons at all, or only in Europe, or whether the two "champions" might not "hurl death reciprocally into each others' vitals." Critics who say France's deterrent is useless or too expensive are in "the same category of laggards and scatter-brains who cried. 'No heavy artillery' until 1914," and before 1939 "cried, 'No armored corps! No fighter aircraft!'':

As journalists like to say, there wasn't very much that was "new" in the speech. But there weren't any new obstacles either.