Foreign policy of the François Mitterrand administration maintaining as many options as possible until forced to pursue a particular course. However, once he made a choice he kept his ministers on a tight leash. Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement lost his ministry over his opposition to French participation in the First Gulf War. Initially, Mitterrand, like British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was vary of German reunification, fearing that it would lead to Germany gaining too much power. He was reluctant to take action because Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev warned it would lead to a military coup d'état in the Soviet Union. Mitterrand did speak in favour of
Marilyn Monroe performances and awards "American National Biography", considers the typecast "an unfair stereotype that bothered her throughout her career". Her major breakthrough came in 1953, when she starred in three pictures: the film noir "Niagara", and the comedies "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "How to Marry a Millionaire". Sarah Churchwell, Monroe's biographer, notes that "unconscious, rather than conscious, sexuality would become the Marilyn hallmark after 1953", and the actress became one of the most popular and recognizable people in America. In 1955 Monroe appeared in the Billy Wilder–directed comedy "The Seven Year Itch", in which she becomes the object of her married neighbor's sexual fantasies.