Politics in a Changing Western World 1179

that if the two superpowers went to war, the battlefields (in conventional
warfare) or the targets (in case of “limited” nuclear warfare) would be in
Europe.

Student Protests Challenge Gaullist France

In the spring of 1968, demonstrators took to the streets of Paris, protesting

the rigid, overcrowded, and under-funded French university system, which

largely remained the preserve of the elite. Intellectual ferment was height­

ened by opposition to the war in Vietnam. In France, students rebelled

against those in political power, inequality, and even modern technology,

which seemed to them dehumanizing. Graffiti in the Latin Quarter (where

students attended university) proclaimed, “Comrades, the Revolution is daily,

it is a festival!”

Early in May 1968, a student radical was expelled from the University of

Paris. In protest, students and some young faculty members occupied uni­

versity buildings at the Sorbonne. After the police entered the university and

began arresting students, the demonstrators fanned out and were joined by

more students. Several students were killed and hundreds injured when

police attacked hastily improvised barricades.

Unlike in the United States, where most workers found student demands

too radical and many supported U.S. participation in the war in Vietnam,

French workers took to the streets in support of the students. A general

strike began on May 13 in protest against police brutality, the largest wave of

French strikes since 1936. Strikers demanded raises, better working condi­

tions, and rights of self-management. Union organizations and the Commu­

nist Party, which had considerable prestige among industrial workers, had

little to do with the movement. The tail seemed to be wagging the dog. If

anything, trade union and Communist leaders tried to bring the movement

under their control in its first days. Gaullist Prime Minister Georges Pompi­

dou (1911-1974) hurriedly returned from a state visit to Afghanistan to

confront the growing crisis.

After a hurried flight to West Germany, presumably to assure himself of

the loyalty of French army units stationed there, de Gaulle dissolved the

National Assembly on May 30 and announced that new elections would be

held on June 23. Gaullists organized counter-demonstrations in support of

the government, capitalizing on the hostility of many middle-class citizens

and peasants in traditionally conservative regions to the turmoil in Paris.

The strike movement ebbed, in part because the government and many com­

panies agreed to raise wages. This left the students standing alone.

After dismissing Pompidou as prime minister, de Gaulle won what

amounted to a referendum on his rule. However, his towering presence

seemed increasingly anachronistic. Speeches about national “grandeur

rang hollow as French influence in the world declined. De Gaulles answer

to a general crisis of confidence was to call for more “participation” in the