WHY THE AMERICANS HATE THE FRENCH

112 REASONS WHY SINCE 1944, THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND THE PENTAGON SECRETLY HATED THE FRENCH.

19. "They ride in our jeeps and waste our gas."
They ride in the jeeps which are officially loaned to them by our government. How do you know they are wasting gas? How do you know their trips are not on official business? Did no Americans waste gas on pleasure trips?

20. "The French aren't friendly."

Some Frenchman are; other Frenchmen are not. The French as a whole are not as "hail fellow well met" as we Americans are. Neither are the British, the Swedes, the Greeks, the Mexicans. Frenchmen don't get personal or confidential quickly. They don't "open up" as quickly as we do in the States. The French are very polite; they are also more formal than we are about personal relationships. (So are the Chinese.) The French respect another person's privacy, and they like to have their own privacy respected too. It is natural for anyone to think the people of another nation are not as friendly as his own people. It's hard to be friendly in a foreign language. It's hard to be friendly when you're hungry, cold, and have gone through six years of war - as the French have. Yet the Americans who came into Normandy, or who came into Paris right after the liberation, still talk about the astonishing outburst of gratitude, generosity and friendliness which the French displayed toward us. Back in the States, many of our troops complained that the people in the towns near the training camps were not friendly. People from our South often complain that the people in the North are not friendly. A Texan in Vermont finds New Englanders "cold" and "snobbish". Do we then say that all Americans are unfriendly? Friendship, said a wise man, lies in this: "To desire the same things and to reject the same things." On this basis, the United States has never had a better friend than France.

21. "Why bother about the French? They won't throw any weight in the post-war world."

Apart from reasons of honor and simple decency (Americans are not in the habit of letting their friends down), it is poor politics and worse diplomacy to "write off" a nation of 40 million allies. You may need their help some day.
France still stands as a bastion on the Atlantic, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. France will still be a strong factor in world political organization. The island bases of France, and her colonies, will still be strategic areas in the world structure of peace. And in the age of the atomic bomb, the physical size and population of a country may be no index of her strength and potentialities. Why bother about France? It is not our job to "bother about" France. But it is our job to be seriously concerned about the peace and the political problems of the world. France is very much a part of that world.

David Low, the English cartoonist, once drew a famous cartoon showing the nations in a large rowboat. The European nations were at one end of the boat, which was foundering in the water; Uncle Sam sat in the other end, high and dry and out of the water. And Uncle Sam was saying, "Why should I worry? The leak isn't in my end of the boat" We have paid a terrible price for believing that a leak "at the other end of the boat" does not affect our destiny.

22. "The French are too damned independent."
The French are independent. They are proud. They are individualists. So are we. That's one reason there is friction between us.

23. "The French are out for what they can get. They always play the winner."
They didn't in 1939, when it looked to all the world as though the Germans were sure winners. The French and British could have let the Germans rape Poland without a protest. The French and British declared war on Germany. Most of the French didn't play the winner in 1940 either, when it looked even more that Germany was unbeatable. While some of their leaders in the Vichy government played ball with the Germans, the vast majority of the people refused to; they resisted in whatever way they could.

24. "The French are mercenary. They'll do anything for a couple of hundred francs."
Where do you draw the line between a "smart businessman" and a "mercenary Frenchman?" The French think that the American soldier who sells cigarettes, soap or candy on the black market at fantastic prices is mercenary. Some Americans will "do anything for a couple of hundred francs".

AMERICANS believe in the right to criticize. We defend our right to "beef" or "gripe" or "sound off". We insist upon the right to express our own opinions. But we also believe in the right of others to express their opinions. For the right to speak involves the duty to listen. The right to criticize involves the responsibility of giving "the other side" a fair chance to make its point. We know that the truth can only be found through open and honest discussion, and that the common good is served through common attempts to reach common understanding. In one way, Democracy is the long and sometimes difficult effort which free men make to understand each other. This booklet tries to help some of us understand an ally - the French. It is not meant either to "defend" the French or to chastise those Americans who do not like the French. It is intended simply to bring into reasonable focus those irritations, dissatisfactions and misunderstandings which arise because it is often hard for the people of one country to understand the people of another. The booklet uses the Question-Answer form. It lists the criticisms, misconceptions and ordinary "gripes" which American troops in Europe express most frequently when they talk about the French. Each comment, or question, is followed by an answer -- or discussion. Some of the answers are quite short, because the question is direct and simple. Some of the answers are quite long, because the "questions" are not questions at all, but indictments which contain complicated and sweeping preconceptions. The purpose of the present publication is to present facts and judgments which even the well-intentioned may tend to overlook. There may be those who will consider this booklet a catalogue of (( excuses )) or (( justifications )). To them it can only be said that the truth is not denied by giving it a derogatory label. There may be others who will seize upon the questions with triumph - ignoring the discussions entirely. That kind of reader will ignore the truth anyway - in whatever form it is offered. This booklet may not convince those who are hopelessly prejudiced, but it may help to keep others from being infected by the same lamentable virus.

25. "The French are gypping us."
Some Frenchmen have certainly gypped some Americans. We remember the times we were gypped. We forget the number of times we were not. How many times were you treated fairly, honestly"?

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