ABSTRACT
When the heads of state and government of the major Western industrial powers met for their first conference at Rambouillet in 1975, they were advocates of a non-spectacular summit. They did not tend to pompous publicity. Originally, they did not even want press conferences. They regarded the remoteness of a chateau as a suitable site to discuss confidentially and openheartedly, at the highest level, without cabinet members or advisers. Foreign ministers and finance ministers were in fact supposed to hold their talks separately.
