The World: Four On the Road

1. Charmer in Paris

The French, who perfected protocol and politesse, faced a delicate situation. How should they welcome Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev, arriving in Paris last week for a six-day visit? Since the bulky, heavy-browed Brezhnev, 64, holds neither state nor governmental station, technically he was not entitled to official honors. But he made it plain that he wanted full red-carpet treatment, and he knew that the French saw his first trip to Western Europe since succeeding Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 as an opportunity to improve relations.

Eventually Brezhnev had his way. President Georges Pompidou smashed protocol by ordering him treated as a chief of state. As a result, when the Soviet leader's Ilyushin-62 came to a stop at Orly last week, it was met by Pompidou, a red carpet, a 101-gun salute and clattering escorts of the mounted Garde Republicaine. Brezhnev and Wife Viktoria Petrovna were lodged in such a vast suite at the Grand Trianon in Versailles that Brezhnev jok ingly complained: "It takes me so long to go from my bedroom to the dining room that I may ask Mr. Pompidou for a vehicle." At the Trianon, Pompidou hosted a state dinner that included so many French wines and champagnes that Brezhnev had to forgo another ceremonial dinner next evening. Security was heavy. Potential troublemakers were rounded up and sent aboard a chartered jet for a paid vacation in Corsica to last the duration of Brezhnev's stay. Ten thousand flics and riot police, the largest concentration since the days of Algerian upheaval, were assigned to protect Brezhnev wherever he moved.

The Human Brezhnev. Between meals and side trips in Paris and Marseille, the two leaders and their advisers met for nearly 14 hours at the Elysee Palace to talk politics. Pompidou extended the invitation to Brezhnev last October during his visit to Moscow, but the Russians were evasive about the timing until President Nixon announced in July that he was going to Peking. Then Brezhnev's Paris trip was suddenly firmed up. The Soviets were not concerned that Premier Aleksei Kosygin would be out of the country at the same time (see following story). President Nikolai Podgorny and other Politburo members were watching the store back in Moscow, and Brezhnev and Kosygin appeared confident enough of their control to be able to travel abroad separately yet simultaneously.

Soon after the trip was announced, Moscow began maneuvering for a Franco-Russian treaty of friendship. Pompidou politely demurred, agreeing instead on an economic agreement under which trade will double to nearly $1 billion by 1976. It also calls on state-owned Renault to provide $222 million in technical assistance and equipment for the $1.2 billion Soviet truck plant on the Kama River; Moscow had tried unsuccessfully to get Ford, Mack Truck and Daimler-Benz to help out.