Jon Henley

Tuesday, in a 45-minute speech aimed at convincing Europeans of a more conciliatory mood in Washington, Rice said the two continents should put their experience and resources on the table and “discuss and decide together” the best way forward. But she was uncompromising in demanding European backing for Bush’s pledge, in his State of the Union speech last week, to spread freedom around the world. “America stands ready to work with Europe on our common agenda, and Europe must stand ready to work with America,” she said. “After all, history will surely judge us not by our old disagreements, but by our new achievements.”

Washington’s charm offensive has been broadly welcomed by European diplomats, particularly since the Iraq elections on Jan. 30. At a joint press conference with Rice later Tuesday night, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier spoke of “a new phase, a clean sheet” in European-U.S. ties, adding that both partners must aim “to speak and listen more to each other, and respect each other’s convictions.”

Several French commentators have said they see clear signals that the Bush administration, for long happy to ignore the views of all who did not agree with it, is now determined to place improved transatlantic relations at the heart of the president’s second term.

Rice, telling reporters it was time to “reinvigorate” the French-U.S. relationship, noted that France had been America’s first ever ally and that “when we do work together, there is a great deal we can achieve.”

On Iraq, Rice said Islam and democracy were not mutually exclusive, and that while the political process would be difficult, she was confident that the Shiite majority that is expected to emerge understood “their responsibility not to do to their fellow Iraqis what was done to them by those who had them live in tyranny and fear.”

She added: “I think they will come to a conclusion that will surprise us all in how well they do it.” Rice had brief talks with President Jacques Chirac Tuesday night, and dined with Barnier at the Foreign Ministry headquarters on the Quai d’Orsay.

In a further sign of apparently thawing relations, Bush is due to meet Chirac in Brussels on Feb. 21.

Security arrangements at Sciences-Po, on Paris’ Left Bank, were unprecedented, said the institute’s director, Richard Descoings. An entire wing of the building had been sealed off since Saturday. The venue of the speech was announced publicly only on Monday. Only 100 places were available for students and teachers at the college, with the remainder reserved by the U.S. Embassy.

Those who heard Rice speak, however, were largely skeptical. “There’s still a lot of anti-American feeling in France,” Anne-Laure, a student, said afterward. “I’m not sure any one person can overcome the instinctive reaction here to Bush.”

Rice insisted that the United States had “everything to gain” from a stronger, more united Europe as a “partner in building a safer and better world.” Transatlantic ties, she noted, were unbreakable. “We respect each other,” she said.

Salinger was outspoken but cultivated, and had a distinguished career with ABC News after serving two Democratic presidents. Born to a French mother in San Francisco in 1925, he had two years on the San Francisco Chronicle before joining the U.S. Navy in 1943. Salinger returned to the paper after the war, then moved to Collier’s magazine, and joined Kennedy’s senatorial staff in 1957.

A trusted member of the Kennedy clan’s circle, Salinger was JFK’s press secretary for the 1960 presidential campaign. He was White House press secretary from 1961 to 1964, ran the first live TV presidential news conference in 1961, and stayed on at the White House after Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. After a brief spell as a senator, he returned to journalism in 1964.

Kennedy, Salinger once said, “was not a perfect man … For all his loftiness of purpose, he did not take himself that seriously. He had no great vision of himself as a political or intellectual giant.”

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president’s brother, told the A.P. Sunday: Salinger “was a steady presence in the best and most difficult of times, and many members of my family sought his counsel on all of the most important issues of the day.

“His skill, genius and judgment in the art of communication were legendary.”

Horrified by the killing of Robert Kennedy, Salinger moved to France and worked for the newsweekly L’Express before becoming ABC’s bureau chief in London and Paris and then the organization’s chief foreign correspondent. He spent a total of 19 years in the French capital, and in 1978 was awarded France’s highest civilian honor, the Légion d’Honneur.

The French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, paid tribute to a “passionate journalist and writer … [who] contributed unfailingly, through his action and his talent, to improving the ties of friendship which unite our two countries.”

Salinger won several prizes, including a George Polk Award, for his 1981 scoop that the U.S. was secretly negotiating to free the Americans held hostage by Iran. In the 1990s he repeatedly questioned the official lines on two air crashes, claiming the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency operation that went wrong, and that TWA Flight 800 was shot down near Long Island, N.Y., by a stray U.S. Navy missile in 1996.

He was hugely popular in France, known for his near-perfect command of the language, strong American accent and love for the Gallic way of life. He quoted Thomas Jefferson’s dictum: “Every man has two countries — his own, and France.” However, he always said the country would benefit from “the exigencies of American democracy.” The outcome of Watergate, forcing Richard Nixon to resign in 1973, would be “unimaginable” in France, Salinger said.

He is survived by Nicole, his fourth wife, and sons Stephen and Gregory. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.