Word: stolid
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...afternoon last week stocky, stolid Premier Joseph Laniel walked to the rostrum in the National Assembly, ran a stubby finger around his collar to loosen it, and began, in a flat, unemphatic voice, to read a speech. For the second time in eight days, to bolster France's search for peace at Geneva, Joseph Laniel was staking his Cabinet's continuation in office on a vote of confidence. He had survived the first vote (before the fall of Dienbienphu) by a comfortable margin, 311 to 262. This time he realized that his government might fall...
Less than 48 hours later, the big, stolid textile millionaire who has governed France for ten shaky months bowed his head before the hushed Deputies. "The government has just learned that the central redoubt of Dienbienphu has fallen . . ." said he. "In the face of this reverse . . . France will have the virile reaction of a great nation." Without signal, the Deputies of France rose to their feet-all but the many Deputies of the Communist Party (and one ex-Gaullist). In their smug disdain for the dead of Dienbienphu, the Communists who call themselves Frenchmen showed their true colors...
Outside this titillating company stands the stolid Turk. He does not need to be sold on antiCommunism. U.S. aid moves him to sober appreciation, not to riot. He considers it a privilege to fight Communism in Korea-and there is no neutralism...
Last week Turkey's head man, solid, stolid President Celal Bayar, came to the U.S. He shook the proper hands, placed the proper wreaths on the proper tombs, beamed the proper smiles and said the proper words to Congress, diplomats and the press. His mission had no specific goal beyond an expression of friendship-no protests to make, no new loans or grants to ask-all in all, a colorless performance by the standards to which Americans have become accustomed...
...essay, the music symbolized an amazing story. In 1953, only eight years after the shame, horror and impotence of defeat in mankind's bloodiest war, Germany came back. It was a world power once more. More than any other, the person who brought this about was the stolid old man who stood in Arlington, visibly moved by the strains of his national anthem echoing among the tombstones. He was Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the West German Republic, apostle of United Europe, 1953's Man of the Year...