The Rainbow Warrior As It Now Looks, Thanks
to France’s Socialist Government
Le Monde has published the details of a memo that shows that the terrorist sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbor in 1985, which killed one Greenpeace worker, was explicitly authorized by then French president Fran��?���§ois Mitterrand. The New York Times (requires simple registration) offers the highlights.
I well remember the elation of my socialist friends at college on the day that the Socialist Party was swept into victory in France in 1981. How disappointed they must have been by the criminality of Mitterand’s regime, not to mention the revelations of his past as an official of the Vichy regime (a dual role, allegedy as Vichy official and as resistance member), and (following on his involvement with the Vichy regime) his protection of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon. What a blot on France’s national honor that such a criminal managed to avoid any legal or political problems during his disgrace-filled lifetime.
How many languages do you speak?
A bit of English, some Canadian, a smattering of Australian, a touch of German, and French that is truly masterful and beautiful. I hesitate to be so bold about the last, but I do have evidence: when I speak French in France, grown men and women openly weep upon hearing the language of MoliÃ?Â??Ã?Â?Ã?¨re spoken so well. (Of course, my French is terrible, but I used to be able to read fairly well and got through a number of books; now it’s very rusty.) Twenty years ago I was able to struggle through Attic Greek, but that, too, has degraded. (I have since forgotten all of the didomi verbs, for example.) Finally, I learned basic and conversational Hungarian and Albanian some years ago for work purposes, but opportunities to chat in Albanian are fairly rare in Washington, so, sadly, that too has declined. Had I the time and resources, I would eagerly improve my French and learn Russian, Hungarian, and Icelandic. But I fear that that is unlikely ever to happen.