Too Many Chips on One Man : French investment in Saddam Hussein turns up bankrupt

The French have now tasted the bitter truth of Saddam Hussein. France’s embassy in Kuwait was violated Friday when Iraqi troops barged in and carted out four French citizens, including a diplomat. The Mitterrand government went into emergency session; many French went into near convulsions of anger. The truth is that France’s carefully calculated Middle East policy, based on support for Baghdad, is almost in ruins.

They are now contributing to the U.N.-sanctioned embargo--sending a half-dozen helicopters and more than 7,000 troops to the gulf, which is not surprising: 36% of its oil comes from there.

But Paris is divided. Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement is mainly notable as a founding member of the influential Franco-Iraq Friendship Assn.--a powerful lobby in France--and as a prominent public critic of French participation in the naval blockade.

Ever since Charles de Gaulle, French foreign policy has often baffled Washington, infuriated the British and grandstanded to audiences near and far. In the Middle East, above all, it cultivated Saddam Hussein. The French military-industrial complex sold him more sophisticated weaponry, including the feared Exocet missiles and Mirage fighters, than anyone else in the West. Allegedly, the Iraqis are now trying to jam electronic-surveillance U.S. AWACS planes using French equipment. Some insist Iraq would not have its extensive chemical warfare arsenal without the help of France, Germany and others. Paris even supplied Baghdad with the nuclear reactor Israel bombed in 1981.

Saddam Hussein will believe he can prevail in the present confrontation--and keep his criminal gains in Kuwait--to the extent that the international consensus against him unwinds and the West shows signs of division. There is a time to play both sides of the street and there is a time to decide. Over the years the French seriously misled themselves about Iraq. Now some of their own forces are jeopardized as a result.