ABSTRACT
A publisher might reject a fantasy-satire about a general in NATO who retires to become a hippie and run rock festivals. Everyday life accepted the preposterous idea: General Claude Clément, 65, veteran of the French Foreign Legion, paratrooper, commander of the 151st brigade in the Italian and Alsatian campaigns of World War II, batallion commander at Hoa Binh in Vietnam and in Algeria after that, and finally the commander of NATO forces in Southern Europe, suddenly sprouted into a flower child. After retiring from the French Army, he organized the Saint-Pons Pop Festival in 1970, established an art center for hippies in southern France, and wrote a book entitled Make Love and Not War Anymore. Known to legions of European hippies as ‘General Pop’, Clément is currently waging a war to convert his ‘straight’ sons to the cause. The interview below by Sandro Ottolenghi is translated from Milan's respected weekly, L’Europeo.
