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Rally Against Pompidou Pledged; Pompidou Warns of Deleterious Affect of Rallies

February 20, 1970
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A pledge to participate in protests throughout the country against the visit of French President Georges Pompidou was made in a resolution adopted at a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs. The Conservative group condemned Pres. Pompidou for his “deception” in making 110 Mirages available to the Arab powers in their “unrelenting” war against Israel. The resolution charged that the sale of Mirages to Libya was “totally inconsistent with any legitimate security needs of Libya.”

(In an interview published in Life magazine, President Pompidou warned that any demonstrations in the United States against his visit, that left Frenchmen feeling insulted through their President, would not benefit the U.S., France or Israel. He minimized the effects of the sale of Mirage jets to Libya in the Mideast conflict and cited deficient pilot training as an indirect safeguard against the use of these planes by Egypt. According to the interview, M. Pompidou insisted there was no deception of the U.S. in France’s deal with Libya although President Nixon was not consulted on it.)

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