In Memory of 'Uncle'

摘要

If there was something you believed in, Francois Mitterrand had probably betrayed it at some point in his life. Patriots despised him for joining the collaborationist Vichy regime in World War Ⅱ; conservatives saw him as a vindictive leftist. He was an intellectual anti-American who helped Ronald Reagan and George Bush; a socialist who forgot his promises. But when Mitterrand died last week after a long struggle with cancer, the French of every stripe mourned his passing. In the end, even his enemies recognized the departed president as a mirror and symbol of themselves.