Word: frenchmen
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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France's Perrier company has built an empire on water. Besides selling half of the roughly 2.5 billion bottles of mineral water that Frenchmen drink every year, it has the national franchise for Pepsi-Cola and is one of the largest makers of chocolate and other candy in France. Annual sales are $204 million. But when Perrier tried to expand its gastronomic conglomerate by growing big in the dairy industry, the ensuing spectacle resembled the script for a French farce...
...only way out of the Viet Nam impasse, the argument continues, was demonstrated by Charles de Gaulle, who firmly liquidated the French commitment in Algeria, despite all earlier pledges to the contrary. The result was a massive exodus of Frenchmen from Algeria and a temporary loss of national prestige; eventually, though, De Gaulle extricated France from an overwhelming financial and moral burden. In much the same way, a unilateral withdrawal from Viet Nam would free the U.S. from an impossible situation. A frank acceptance of defeat would clear the air, gain America credit for moral courage, and enable...
...retirement of that exceptional man has forced Frenchmen to examine their problems-economic, social and cultural-in a new and often unflattering light. They have found that De Gaulle's visions, however enchantingly phrased, obscured some serious shortcomings. As a result, the nation feels suddenly, and uncomfortably, second-rate. "Mediocrity," says a young Gaullist deputy, "can be enriching, even enjoyable, but mediocre nevertheless...
...extent, the new President offered that pledge in response to the demands of French voters, who during last spring's election campaign seemed to want nothing so much as a descent from the Gaullist heights. But the idea that Frenchmen would settle for such a passive role plainly grated on Pompidou. Perhaps France could have happiness and honor, gratification and glory? Nowhere did Pompidou express that view more trenchantly than at Ajaccio, Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon. Marking the bicentennial of Napoleon's birth last month, Pompidou pointed out: "In fact, he did not find happiness...
...lift his countrymen from such petty aspirations -and from such deep self-doubt. Now both appear to be returning more distressingly than ever. No one believes that France, the revolutionary birthplace of modern democracy, has lost all pride and will sink into smug complacency because De Gaulle has gone. Frenchmen have realized, however, that their rating as a nation depends less on one man's words or actions than on their combined deeds...