Yugoslavia

"Suddenly, however, Kléber is going to wake up. The V 10 runs well. Very well, in fact. Bulgaria, East Germany, and Yugoslavia buy the license. Kléber’s aviation tires equip not only the Caravelle and Mirage but also the Concorde and Boeing 747 (as they will soon equip Airbus). The Paris Stock Exchange discovers the old Colombes company with eyes like Chimène. Financial analysts readily present it as a growth stock. The stock prices soar. The cash flow, indeed, progresses faster than the sales. Huvelin has embarked on an ambitious investment program in France (Toul) and in Saar (Saint-Ingbert) which is expected to bear fruit soon. In the French tire market, Kléber’s penetration rises to nineteen percent in the years 1969-1970. In Germany, it approaches ten percent."

"Much of his historical and biographical reading is directed by his travel. A favourite Gibbs aphorism is, ‘The more interests you have, the more interesting life is.’ ‘To see Yugoslavia, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan after the Taliban fell over, the copper mines north of Santiago, or to travel with the kids through areas of north India where they were fighting,’ he argues, ‘is a great source of stimulus. The consequence is that whenever you see anything about those places in the news, you’re interested.’ A biography of the great Victorian explorer Henry Morton Stanley is much more interesting when you’re just about to visit the Congo."