Paris Post War: Art and Existentialism 1945 - 55

2 December 1952

France's war in Indo- China has been going badly, even tragically, with the ever-stronger Vietminh forces encircling French military outposts. The fighting is now so clouded by Army censorship that soldiers' parents here can only fear the worst. General Eisenhower's projected visit to the United Nations war in Korea, with its recent horrible bloody seesawing, has filled the French with the hope that first one, then another truce, on whatever terms, will bring a cease-fire for the New Year.

As for Pinay's government in France, it has been touch and go. For days it has looked in the evening as if it would fall, but it is always still there in the

morning, like the not very radiant winter sun.

From Paris Journal 1944-1965 by Janet Flanner (Gollancz 1966)

Paris Post War: Art and Existentialism 1945-55 at the Tate Gallery until 5 September.