""112 Gripes about the French"" Topic

112 Gripes about the French

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Fascinating, but some of the gripes did have a basis, even this book concedes.

I always like the tale of de Gaulle telling Pres Eisenhower he wanted all US troops out of France. The reply was to ask if that included those in the French cemeteries……..

The booklet, like a lot of propaganda pieces, provides good answers to some questions, but avoids other gripes altogether. Notice how the milice and the French Waffen SS elements don't show up at all. The author talks about policies and not labels, but avoids mentioning that the French Communist Party was the most Stalinist such outside the Warsaw Pact--and had the votes of a quarter of the French population.
And there's no mention whatever of the French trying to collect port fees on US troops landing in North Africa, while the bodies of GI's they'd killed were still floating in the harbor.

The French are, usually, allies. That didn't and doesn't make them friends.

Any idea who put out the pamphlet and when, Steve? Feels like something the Army or the State Department might have done just postwar.

Deadhead, credit where credit is due. That wasn't Ike, but LBJ.

Actually, it was Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, who asked de Gaulle, but it was at Johnson's direction. This was in 1966.

Any idea who put out the pamphlet and when, Steve? Feels like something the Army or the State Department might have done just postwar.

1945 is the only date I've seen and it has been described as coming from the War department or from the United States Army Service Forces Information and Education Division, which I think would be a branch of the War Department, so I'm not sure!

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Scott, I'd heard it was the US Ambassador to France, but I'm still giving Johnson full credit for that one: diplomats don't say anything that brutally honest unless the boss twists an arm--and if there was one thing LBJ understood, it was arm-twisting.

and if there was one thing LBJ understood, it was arm-twisting.

… and ear-lifting! :)

I have just sent a PM to say that I have "known" for years that Ike said that. Like many things I "know", but the principle still stands. Best I say nothing more about France and international diplomacy, agreements, treaties, arms embargoes and national self-interest.

I always like the tale of de Gaulle telling Pres Eisenhower he wanted all US troops out of France. The reply was to ask if that included those in the French cemeteries…….

probably the same who wanted to sent de Gaulle to the cemeteries

Notice how the milice and the French Waffen SS elements don't show up at all

maybe because were are talking about only 7000 militiamen the D-Day for 40 millions of inhabitants and the same number in the Charlemagne There is more people a market day or a 14th july in a french village than in such mercenary "division" brigade, the same proportion of Waffen SS than those coming from neutral countries such as Switzerland and Sweden contrary to the rest of occupied Europe despiste they had a govt in London like the little neigbourhing Belgium able to give the same number of volunteers than France for five times less inhabitants,
to say nothing of the invasion, 120 000 men after 1943, of whole Soviet Regiments and Battalions under german uniform alongside the french coasts the D-Day or their whole Division nicknamed the Mongols Hordes by the people, given their behaviour hunting the Maquis across the country
but the guys of the Milice and SS are certainly more important and 'bankable' to recall than 5 millions of men mobilised with already 70 000 dead when not even a single GI's was killed while there were around 4 millions of KKK members sharing the same mentality than the Nazis or the wealthy elites celebrating the german victory against France at the Walsdorf Astoria in june 1940 Nazi Germany being main partner of the US, next step was to give carte blanche in Indochina to the Japs and help the Siamese then the communist Vietminh the following months and years…and to do everything possible to eliminate de Gaulle

The French are, usually, allies. That didn't and doesn't make them friends.

no comment
unfortunately the thread illustrates that perfectly (again) but it a surprise for none…

Very well said, Lilian. On this side of the Atlantic, there was a war before December 1941!