France: Battle of the Sorbonne

"This is real guerrilla action," said Paris Police Chief Maurice Grimaud. Indeed it was. In a year that has been marked almost everywhere by student upheaval. Paris last week captured the record for the largest student riots so far in 1968. While the city prepared for the opening of Vietnamese peace talks, students staged the sharpest street fighting since the end of World War II. By week's end, the gulf between the government and students—who were joined by France's major unions—had widened into a serious anarchical challenge to Charles de Gaulle's government.

The trouble began two weeks ago,...