Perhaps the best verdict passed on Charles de Gaulle was one he penned himself in 1934, long before he achieved international fame. "Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness, and cunning," he wrote. But he quickly added, "all those things will be forgiven him, indeed, they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make of them the means to achieve great ends." Charles de Gaulle could and did.
I was let down by the superficiality of the article titled "Fans nervously await film version of Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged' " (Arts, Friday), about the recently released film adaptation of the famous Ayn Rand novel.
France's energetic, peripatetic new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has not abandoned work during his much-publicized family vacation in Wolfeboro, N.H. Conferring with Justice Minister Rachida Dati during speedboat rides on Lake Winnipesaukee, Mr. Sarkozy — who is scheduled to lunch today with President Bush at Kennebunkport, Maine — also found time to address the question: Whither French culture?
