Word: pompidou
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...obsequies were for French President Georges Pompidou-classicist, civil servant, financier and politician-who died last week at age 62 after a prolonged and painful bout with what is suspected to have been multiple myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow). At week's end, nearly 70 of the world's leaders, including Britain's Prime Minister Harold Wilson, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka, Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny, Queen Juliana of The Netherlands and the Duke of Edinburgh, flew to Paris to pay him final tribute. There, in the Gothic splendor of Notre Dame...
...days earlier, Pompidou had been buried with an austere, simple service, as he had requested in a confidential note that he gave to his aide 20 months ago. A Requiem Mass was celebrated in his parish church of St.Louisen-l'Ile, near the Pompidous' elegant seven-room apartment on the He St. Louis in the middle of the Seine. Some 400 mourners, including his widow Claude, his son Alain, members of the government and old friends, crowded the baroque church for the 50-minute service. His casket was draped with the French tricolor and, as he had requested...
...Pompidou's desire to be buried under a simple headstone in a tiny village was strikingly similar to the arrangements Charles de Gaulle requested for himself. It was perhaps appropriate that in death, as in much of his life, Pompidou marched to the beat of the general's drum. He was De Gaulle's chosen heir, and though he lacked the general's grandeur and electrifying sense of history, Pompidou took De Gaulle's inspiration and institutionalized it. He kept alive the ideals of a movement-a strong executive authority, a sense of social order...
...early days of his presidency, Pompidou would exercise an official prerogative by wandering through the Louvre after closing hours, lingering to contemplate the creations of his favorite artists. His personal collection included works by Ernst, Braque, Soulages and De Stael-some of which replaced the more traditional art that De Gaulle had favored for the presidential apartments of the Elysee Palace...
During his five years in the Elysee, Pompidou continued De Gaulle's foreign policy. Most of his efforts were focused on the area most vital to France-Europe. Like De Gaulle, he envisaged a unified Europe composed of sovereign nations that would be strong enough to resist becoming dependent on either the Soviet Union or the U.S. More pragmatic than his predecessor, Pompidou agreed to let Britain join the Common Market (De Gaulle had twice vetoed the proposal). Pompidou also sponsored European summit meetings and even let some French military units participate occasionally in NATO maneuvers...