Louis ARAGON (1897-1982). Autograph manuscript, signed at head, Aragon vous parle: du genre bouffe, [1960]; 4 1/2 pages in-4 with erasures and corrections. Article against the United States of America, published in May 1960 in issue no. 760 of France Nouvelle, the weekly of the French Communist Party. "I've often been reminded of Shakespeare in the face of the spectacle we see at the great international assemblies, formerly the League of Nations and now the United Nations: as in the historical plays of the great English dramatist, we see the heralds of the nations come to the front of the stage, and say the worst things about their adversaries. After which, in Shakespearean times, wars would begin, or a marriage would be made between princes and princesses of the blood of both parties. But these days, although it's still a question of the tragedy of peoples, and that when the powerful in presence have in their hands the weapons of the annihilation of humanity, it seems that a new school wants to make prevail on this particular theater the aesthetics and the means not of the Shakespearian drama, but of the Italian pantalonnade". Aragon then mocks Cabot Lodge and his statements to the Security Council on Soviet espionage; according to Aragon, this is merely an embarrassed and ridiculous reaction to the incident of the U-2 shot down by the USSR, demonstrating American espionage over the Soviet Union...