October 12, 2001

Intellectual Debate in France

To the Editor:

Misconstruing the French cultural scene, Lois Oppenheim's essay, titled "France Takes Its Intellectuals to Heart, Even as They Doubt Themselves" (The Review, September 7), makes several serious blunders that mislead readers.

Many French people liked Bill Clinton because he had ideas and loved discussing them interminably. ... Far from the Arkansas hick who, Oppenheim implies, would cut a comic figure in France, Clinton the Rhodes scholar bears more than a faint