藍月星雨
本人信奉之藍人準則：但求三餐不愁。睡大覺，喝小酒，穿花衣裳。
《紐約時報》2003.3.8.
當人們說起多米尼▪克德維爾潘，腦海裏呼之欲出的形象是一隻兔子。
法國的外交部長就象是隻外交界的勁量電池兔子，一個夜裏隻睡不超過四個半鍾頭，喜歡叫醒助手商討國事，白天進行馬拉鬆式的工作而夜晚創作詩歌的精力充沛的人。
在一月份的七天時間裏，周六他在象牙海岸跟交戰的派係談判，周三準備普京到法國的國事訪問而周四在中國，周五在南韓討論朝鮮核威脅。在他出任外交部長的頭十個月裏，包括他陪同希拉克總統到阿爾及利亞做第一次國事訪問在內，他總共出訪了七十多個國家。
迄今為止他對世界的最大影響是發出了無情批判布什政府發動伊拉克戰爭的最強音。作為本周法――德――俄發起的阻止美國在聯合國通過動武決議的設計師－－除非武檢失敗－－德維爾潘的所說和所為的確在跨大西洋外交中達到了一個聞所未聞的水平。
在美國，他的反戰姿態招致了一場聲討德維爾潘的大戰。先是一位專欄作家把他形容為 “油嘴滑舌”，緊接著另一位則稱其為“爽口型外交”。這些批評非但沒有使他卻步，反而激發了他的動力。 “所有的批評都是正確的，所有的讚美都是不實之辭。” 在他飯店的套間裏接受采訪時他說，“批評使人進步，讚美則會令人裹足不前。”
美國方麵多數的批評來自布什政府內部，在那個圈子裏德維爾潘因為膽敢跟國務卿鮑威爾對著幹而備受唾棄。
據說這兩個人因為去年秋天在通過安理會要求伊拉克配合武檢的決議的過程中建立了良好的關係。但這一關係在今年一月份由於德維爾潘要求安理會召開關於反恐問題的會議使鮑威爾覺得被背叛之後破裂了。在鮑威爾眼中，那個會議變成德維爾潘當眾抨擊華盛頓的論壇－－事先沒有任何的警告－－德維爾潘便宣稱在伊拉克問題上“沒有任何理由可以為設想動用武力而開脫。”
作為回應，法國方麵的官員稱，德維爾潘的確相信過鮑威爾所保證的美國現行政策的目的不是推翻薩達姆政權，而是解除伊拉克的武裝。當國防部長唐納德·拉姆斯菲爾德表述了跟上述觀點相左的意願之後，德維爾潘也覺得被背叛了。
當49歲的德維爾潘高速快跑的時候，有時確實難以了解他奔向何方。甚至連一些他最親密的助手都承認他的確才華橫溢，或許有些狂熱，或許兩者都有那麽一點兒，一些外交官甚至管他叫“佐羅”。
在一月份的一個電視采訪中，當被問到他一貫性的建議時，他回答說：“這是至關重要的，因為事態的緊迫性就在這裏。緊迫的重大國際問題。恐怖主義。武器擴散。原教旨主義的興起。多樣化的危機影響到我們每一個人的生活。當前，麵對這些問題，你不可能在臉上罩一層麵紗。”
如果說德維爾潘擁有一個可視的夢想，那就是重振法蘭西的輝煌－－一個他在已經出版的著作《一百天》的第一卷中明白無誤地闡明了的羅曼蒂克的觀點，這是一部關於拿破侖的傳記，講述這位皇帝從流亡中重返，勝利地橫跨法蘭西出征，最後在滑鐵盧被擊敗。
將拿破侖的哲學歸述為，“不論勝利或死亡，榮耀終將來臨。”德維爾潘補充道，為了“推進法蘭西的遠大抱負”，“幾乎沒有一天是在沒有讓我感到迫切地需要銘記而不向漠不關心，冷嘲熱諷低頭而渡過的。”
在他接受采訪期間敞開的黑色皮質古奇公文包裏可以找到其它一些關於他思想的蛛絲馬跡。拿出一厚疊用絲帶匝好的手稿，裏麵是拿破侖的傳記的第二卷，一個文件夾，裏麵是他正在修改的他自己的詩作，一個他正在撰寫前言的朋友的書稿，一遝畫稿，最後，隻有這時，他關於安哥拉的公文。
“你明白了吧，我喜歡同時幹許多件事情，”他說。“這是唯一保持清醒的方法。在淩晨3點鍾你需要做跟2點鍾不同的事情，因為如果不這樣，你就會睡著。”
一天前，德維爾潘說，他剛為國家安全顧問古爾道·蒙坦內寫了一首詩，我請求他朗誦一首詩，結果他朗誦了三首。
希拉克最信任的助手，有一次這樣形容德維爾潘 “有那麽一點兒象個兒子，”他為自己在法國政治中的獨立性和獨特性感到滿意。
一幅兩周前的《巴黎競技》雜誌的封麵照，使所有的人包括法國政界的元老們都目瞪口呆。希拉克身著西裝站在德維爾潘身旁稍側，而德維爾潘卻隻穿著襯衫。“德維爾潘看上去象是一個王儲，親昵到甚至不覺得自己應該穿上外套。”一名資深法國外交官這樣說。
德維爾潘也有政治上的對立麵，他們責怪他說服希拉克在1997年解散國民議會提前選舉，導致了社會黨領導的運動以及其後五年中他們和希拉克權利共享的局麵。總統從那時起一直在保護他。
事實上，希拉克政治圈子中堅信聖潔的跨大西洋聯盟的成員們對黨內的運作大吐苦水，國防部和軍隊被拋在一邊，除了總統和德維爾潘之外沒有其他任何人在製定法國的外交政策。
他可能的權利頂點使人猜測他的政治抱負是將來成為總統。一些和他親近的人相信他激烈的否認，“我從來沒有想過擁有政治生涯”，他堅持道，“我隻不過是想服務。”
在法國以外，德維爾潘在擔任外交部長之前不為人所知，他是一個有權勢的參議員的兒子。出生於摩洛哥，生長於國外，裏根政府時，德維爾潘在法國駐華盛頓的使館當過新聞發言人，利用這段時間他建立起了與記者、說客以及國會圈子的交情。
在給當時的法國外長兼總理阿蘭·朱佩充當助手之後，1995年，希拉克任命他擔任總統顧問使他步入了法國官僚圈子的頂層。黝黑的膚色，滿頭銀發，身高6尺3寸的德維爾潘，最近被一個評論家在倫敦的《觀察家》報上描述為“一幅外交官的招貼畫。”
他的同事們說，他承認自己很少有時間和妻子瑪莉-蘿蕊以及他們三個十幾歲的孩子，阿瑟，瑪莉和維多莉在一起。
他的下屬被他的工作習慣弄得疲憊不堪，去年秋天剛剛從阿富汗的午夜班機到家，他就喚醒助手召開會議。“我喜歡一天殺死他們中的一個，”他開玩笑地對記者說。
在采訪的過程中他堅持自己的所作所為是出於對美國的愛而不是仇視。“真的，我們真心認為美國在伊拉克問題上使自己的將來麵臨極大的風險，”他說，“要知道我是多麽關愛美國才這麽做的。”
*在此感謝對本文提出意見的曾子曰先生
Diplomacy at High Speed, Pour la France!
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
ALGIERS — When people talk about Dominique Galouzeau de Villepin, one image that springs to mind is that of a rabbit.
France's foreign minister is the Energizer bunny of diplomacy, a hyperactive force who sleeps no more than four and a half hours a night, enjoys waking up aides to discuss matters of state, runs marathons by day and writes poetry by night.
In the span of seven days in January, he was in Ivory Coast on a Saturday negotiating with warring factions, in Russia on Wednesday preparing President Vladimir V. Putin's state visit to France and in China on Thursday and South Korea on Friday to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat. Altogether, in his first 10 months in the job, he has traveled to 70 countries, including this trip accompanying President Jacques Chirac on his first state visit to Algeria.
By far his biggest impact on the world scene has been to emerge as the most vocal and relentless critic of the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq. As the architect of the French-German-Russian initiative this week to stop the United States from passing a war resolution at the United Nations — unless international weapons inspections fail — what Mr. de Villepin says and does have taken on a level of importance unheard of in trans-Atlantic diplomacy.
In the United States, his antiwar stance has unleashed an onslaught of Villepin-bashing, leading one columnist to call him "oleaginous," another to dub him "diplomacy lite."
Instead of giving him pause, the criticism gives him more energy. "All criticism is justified, all praise is unjustified," he said in an interview in his hotel suite here on Tuesday. "You grow with criticism; you are diminished with praise."
Much of the American criticism has come from within the Bush administration itself, where Mr. de Villepin has been vilified for daring to take on Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
The two were said to have developed a warm relationship during negotiations last fall over a Security Council resolution demanding Iraqi cooperation with weapons inspections. But the relationship unraveled in January, after Mr. Powell felt betrayed by Mr. de Villepin when the French demanded a Security Council meeting on terrorism. In Mr. Powell's eyes, the event turned into a forum for Mr. de Villepin to slam Washington — without any warning — when he said that "nothing justifies envisaging military action" in Iraq.
In turn, according to French officials, Mr. de Villepin had believed Mr. Powell's assurances that the goal of American policy was not to overthrow President Saddam Hussein, but to disarm Iraq. When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld contradicted that view, Mr. de Villepin also felt betrayed.
While Mr. de Villepin, 49, runs at high speed, it is sometimes difficult to know where he going. Even some of his closest aides call him brilliant or a bit crazy or both, and some diplomats have taken to calling him "Zorro."
Asked in a television interview in January about his perpetual motion, he replied: "It is crucial because the urgency is there. The urgency of great international questions. Terrorism. Proliferation. The rise of fundamentalism. The multiplicity of crises which have an impact on the lives of all of us. Today, you can't put a veil over your face."
If Mr. de Villepin has a vision, it is to revive the greatness of France — a romantic view he articulated in his book, "The Hundred Days," the first published volume of a biography of Napoleon that tells the story of the emperor's return from exile, his triumphant march across France and his final defeat at Waterloo.
Describing Napoleon's philosophy as "Victory or death, but glory whatever happens," Mr. de Villepin added, "There is not a day that goes by without me feeling the imperious need to remember so as not to yield in the face of indifference, laughter or gibes" in order to "advance further in the name of a French ambition."
Other clues to his thinking and temperament can be found in his black leather Gucci briefcase, which he opened up during the interview. Out came a thick dossier tied with a ribbon that contained the manuscript of the second volume of the Napoleon biography, a folder containing a collection of his poems that he is re-editing, the manuscript of a friend's book for which he is writing an introduction, a dossier on painting and, only then, his official papers on Algeria.
"You see, I like to do many things at the same time," he said. "That's the only way to stay awake. At three in the morning you need to do something different than at two in the morning, because if not, you fall asleep."
Just the day before, Mr. de Villepin said, he had written a poem for the national security adviser, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne. Asked to read a poem, Mr. de Villepin read three.
As the most trusted aide of Mr. Chirac, who once described Mr. de Villepin as "a little like a son," he enjoys an independence that is unique in French politics.
A cover photo in the magazine Paris-Match two weeks ago stunned even veterans in the French political elite. There was Mr. Chirac, dressed in a suit, standing ever so slightly behind Mr. de Villepin, in shirt sleeves. "De Villepin looks like the dauphin, so intimate with the president that he doesn't even feel obliged to put on his jacket," said one longtime French diplomat.
Mr. de Villepin has his share of political enemies, who blame him for talking Mr. Chirac into dissolving the National Assembly in 1997 and calling early elections, a move that brought a Socialist-led government and ushered in five years of uneasy power-sharing with Mr. Chirac. The president has protected him ever since.
Indeed, members of Mr. Chirac's political circle who believe in the sanctity of the trans-Atlantic alliance complain bitterly that party operatives, the Defense Ministry and the armed forces have been pushed aside and that no one but the president and Mr. de Villepin are defining French foreign policy.
His proximity to the pinnacle of power has led to speculation that he has the ambition to be president one day. Few of those close to him believe his fierce denials. "I have never wanted to have a political career," he insisted. "I just aspire to serve."
Although Mr. de Villepin was little known outside of France before becoming foreign minister, he is the son of a powerful senator. Born in Morocco and raised abroad as a child, Mr. de Villepin served as the news media spokesman at the French Embassy in Washington during the Reagan administration, using the time to forge friendships with journalists, lobbyists and Congressional staffers.
After working as a key aide to Alain Juppé when Mr. Juppé was foreign minister and then prime minister, Mr. de Villepin was catapulted into the bureaucratic stratosphere when Mr. Chirac made him his top adviser in 1995. Perpetually tanned, the silver-haired, 6-foot-3 Mr. de Villepin was described recently by a commentator in the London newspaper The Observer as "a diplomatic pin-up."
He confesses to aides that he has little time to spend with his wife, Marie-Laure, and their three teenage children, Arthur, Marie and Victoire, his colleagues said.
His staff is run ragged by his work habits. After midnight on a flight home from Afghanistan last fall, he woke up his aides to have a meeting. "I like to kill one of them a day," he joked to one journalist.
In the interview, he insisted that his antiwar stance was motivated by love, not hatred, of the United States. "Really, we are so convinced that America is taking such risks for its future with this Iraq cause," he said. "To act like I do, you have to know how much I love America."