Word: henry
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Defense or Liberation? If war came, would the U.S. fight in Western Europe? The Europeans are uncertain about that. Harry Truman's St. Patrick's Day speech to Congress, which implied a promise of military help, was not enough for them. Belgium's Premier Paul-Henri Spaak appeared shortly in Washington and asked for a definite commitment. It was not forthcoming. Pundit Walter Lippmann and others noted that the U.S. could hardly help going to war if Russia attacked Western Europe, since U.S. troops east of the Rhine would have to be pushed aside first. But Europeans...
...Brussels last week, the man who, as much as any single individual, is responsible for this state of affairs told how it had come about. He is Paul-Henri Spaak, Premier of Belgium. With his cherubic frown, his bulging forehead, his pugnacious lower lip, he bears a startling resemblance to Winston Churchill; in the whole grey and sagging circle of European leaders, he is one of the few men with a spark of Churchillian fire. With one hand thrust truculently into his trouser pocket, he uses the other to tick off the reasons for Belgian prosperity...
...most spectacular piece of good sense was displayed by Belgium's government in exile (which included Paul-Henri Spaak as Foreign Minister) when it decided that Belgium would need hard work and that hard work required incentives. The plans were put into operation on September 8, 1944, the day the government returned to Brussels. Like every German-occupied country, Belgium was flooded with excess paper money (almost five times as many francs were in circulation as before the war). Finance Minister Camille Gutt called in all bank notes larger than 100 francs, returned no more than 2,000 francs...
...Paul-Henri Spaak, who in his Bond Street-style clothes still recalls Pieter Bruegel's ripe-colored, sturdy figures, himself best symbolizes Belgium's healthy appetite for good life, good sense and hard work. Last week he had a chance to show his mettle in a political controversy-the matter of raising the subsidies to state schools. That was a touchy business in a coalition government of eight Socialists, nine Christian Socialists (Catholic party) and two nonparty technicians. The Catholic party, which has strong roots among a people whose lusty contentment is matched by deep religious feeling, protested...
...Paul-Henri was," says Marie Spaak, "the easiest of my children to handle, so sweet and affectionate. He still is. When he takes me to dinner he comes hunting for me in the Senate, asking everyone, 'Avez-vous vu Maman...