Talk:Anti-French sentiment in the United States/temporary version
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This is a work in progress
With the Iraq disarmament crisis in 2003 and France's opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, anti-French sentiment has flared up in the United States. However, anti-French sentiment in the United States is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, anti-French sentiment in the U.S. is best understood in the larger context of Anglo-French rivalries going back hundreds of years.
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Historical Anglo-French Rivalries
TODO: up through the French and Indian War
United States Perceptions of France
TODO: Popular U.S. perceptions of the French as rude and snobby (list of movies and books such as Paths of Glory and "National Lampoon's European Vacation", etc.). Perception in the U.S. that the French are effete, cowardly, immoral, anti-Semitic, etc.
Protestant vs. Catholic
TODO: Protestant reformation, strong anti-Catholic sentiment in the American colonies
Historical Franco-American relations
TODO: Lay out the condensed history of Franco-American relations from France's support in the American Revolutionary War, Lafayette, the Statue of Liberty, the split between Anglo-French and US-French relationships caused by the French Revolution, XYZ Affair, Quasi-War, Napoleon's blockade
World War I
World War II
TODO: Vichy French, American war cemetaries in France, "the debt" and the misperception of French perfidy or cowardice in WWII
de Gaullism and the Cold War
TODO: France's withdrawal from the integrated NATO force structure in the 1960s, France's pursuit of nuclear weapons, France's refusal to allow U.S. overflight in the bombing of Libya in the 1980s, etc.
The European Union
TODO: France's creation of the European Union as a response to U.S.-Anglo hegemony of Europe.
The End of the Cold War
TODO: France's support for the Hutu regime in the Rwandan genocide, France's sheltering of Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, French and American industrial espionage, French expulsion of CIA spies
Post 9/11
TODO: France's support (both military and political) for U.S. action in Afghanistan, for the war on terrorism
2003 Invasion of Iraq
TODO: France's opposition of the U.S. plans to invade Iraq, "freedom fries", "Old Europe"
References
- Bringing out the Animal in Us (http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1045511606092)
- France's Feeble Demand (http://www.franksmyth.com/clients/FrankSmyth/frankS.nsf/f8c72a29811e33f385256b6c005611b1/2deec59d3ba9bc2c85256b7b007906a0?OpenDocument)