Anti-French sentiment in the United States
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Anti-French sentiment in the United States is characterized by disapproval of many or all things French. It often takes the form of moral censure corresponding with tensions in Franco-U.S. relations.
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Before the Second World War
"Francophobia" in the U.S. reverses the earlier pattern of a "Francophilia." In patriotic American contexts, France was characterized as the first ally of the American revolutionaries. When the Marquis de Lafayette toured the United States in (1824-1825), he was accorded a hero's welcome as the first American celebrity, and numerous new settlements were named Lafayette, Fayette and Fayetteville.
Harvard University professor and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury A. Piatt Andrew summed up this Francophile tradition, when he wrote:
- "Few in number and limited in their activities, this little band of American ambulance drivers in France is of course insignificant when compared with the tens of thousands of young Frenchmen who crossed the ocean as soldiers and sailors to help America in 1777. To the valor and devotion of these Frenchmen we owe our very existence as an independent nation, and nothing that Americans have done for France during these last hard years of trial can be thought of — without embarrassment — in relation with what Frenchmen did for us in those unforgettable years of our peril from 1777 to 1781."
By the time of George Washington's presidency, however, an ideological split was already emerging between Francophobe and Francophile sentiment, with John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and their fellow Federalists taking a skeptical view of France, even as Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans urged closer ties. In the 1790s, the French, under a new post-revolutionary government, accused the United States of collaborating with the English and proceeded to impound UK-bound US merchant ships. Attempts at diplomacy lead to the 1797 XYZ Affair in which three French agents approached American delegates requesting a tribute of $250,000. This lead to a state of Quasi-War, an undeclared war fought entirely at sea between the United States and France from 1798 to 1801. Relations improved after the rise of Napoleon and the election of Thomas Jefferson culminating with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
With the influx of Irish immigrants in the 1840s and the rise of a populist sub-culture hostile to Britain, France became a rallying-point, though an ambivalent one, for its republicanism was tarnished. American cultured classes embraced French styles and luxuries after the Civil War: Americans trained as architects in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, French haute cuisine reigned at elite American tables, and upper class women in the U.S. followed Parisian clothing fashions. Following World War I, a generation of rich American expatriates and bohemians settled in Paris. The stock-market crash and the Great Depression put a damper on international lifestyles, and a change in temper of internal French politics during the interbellum sent many politically fastidious Americans home.
The First World War had also brought the British and the Americans closer together; and a millennium old British reservation against the French was easily conducted by the common language. Reservations against the function of the French parliamentarism, against Catholicism and most of all against a clearly perceived French arrogance, that in the eyes of many English speakers greatly exaggerated France's role in the ending of the World War, and in world politics after that, weakened the emotional ties between American Francophiles and the French. Additionally, French attitudes against Weimar Germany, combining fear and a wish for dominance, were by many seen as the major obstacle for a lasting European peace, as it mobilized the Germans into revanchism and militarism.
Post World War II
The collapse of France in 1940 under German forces came as a profound shock to Francophilic Americans, who remembered a quite different Paris through the rosy tints of popular culture: "The Last Time I Saw Paris," an American hit for Tony Martin in 1941, and An American in Paris (1951) both fed off sentimental recall of stock imagery of Paris that actually reflected the 1920s, not the 1930s.
Soon after the end of World War II, relations between the United States and France began to sour; the U.S. was critical of French colonial activities during the Algerian War of Independence and during the Suez Crisis (1956). The United States pushed for France to end its colonial empire.
Franco-U.S. relations became far worse under Charles de Gaulle, who rejected the position of France as weaker partner of the US and attempted to position France as a counterweight to U.S. power in Europe and certain parts of the Third World. This included demanding equal status in NATO, and then pulling out of NATO's integrated military command when this was refused. France also distanced itself from Israel, with which it used to have a very close relationship, and began to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause in the Middle East. Israel then sought closer ties with the United States. De Gaulle's government began to criticize the US war in Vietnam, which was generally unpopular in France. France also tried to develop less hostile relations with the communist world, including the Soviet Union, while it established military forces meant to oppose a Soviet invasion. In particular, French pursuit of nuclear weapons and an independent military capability were also designed to free France from its dependency upon the US. During de Gaulle's time in office, Franco-U.S. relations reached a great low, and there were accusations from American commentators that France was "no longer a Western power."
De Gaulle's support for Quebec independence was partly seen in the U.S. as an unwelcome intrusion of a European power into the affairs of a sovereign country in the Americas, as exemplified by his Vive le Québec libre speech in 1967, and flying in the face of the Monroe Doctrine, whereby the U.S. rejected the reestablishment of direct European influence in the Western Hemisphere. This call for the independence of a province of a close ally sharing land borders with the U.S. was seen as a hostile intrusion by a nation that the U.S. saw as a historic friend.
Relations improved somewhat under de Gaulle's successors, but tensions reappeared intermittently. France, more strongly than any other nation, sees the European Union as a method of counter-balancing American power, and thus works towards such ends as having the Euro challenge the preeminent position of the United States dollar in global trade. France has also worked hard to maintain a number of dependencies in western Africa. The American government remained lukewarm towards France, and pursued much closer relationships with other states such as the United Kingdom.
Many Americans, especially conservatives, have a negative view of France. Left-wingers tend to have a better opinion of France. This is seen when conservative talk hosts and magazines regularly decry the French whereas Michael Moore went to accept an award for his movie Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Cannes Film Festival in France — though the award was granted by an international jury with a minority of French people.
2003 Iraq War
Anti-French sentiment in the United States returned to the fore in the wake of France's refusal to endorse the 2003 US plan to invade Iraq in the UN Security Council. While other nations were also openly opposed to the plan (notably Germany, Russia, Belgium and the People's Republic of China), France was accused of particularly ferocious criticism, because it was seen by invasion proponents as opposing not because of a disagreement over what to do about the situation, but as a way of opposing the United States for the sake of decreasing the diplomatic power of the United States and building an opposing power movement.
France was accused, mainly in the US, of knee-jerk anti-Americanism, of hypocritically acting out of economic interests in Iraq's oil (a similar charge was leveled at Russia and Germany, but with less ferocity), and of hypocritically sending a military presence to Côte d'Ivoire (formerly known as the Ivory Coast in English) during the Iraq crisis.
France and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council with veto power, warned that they would oppose the proposed new U.N. resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq on March 11, 2003. Since it is probable that a majority of other members of the Security Council would have opposed the plan in case of vote (see The UN Security Council and the Iraq war), the proposition was cancelled, and some wondered why France was singled out. Many people (including some French people) feel that France was singled out because it was actively defending its position, in open competition against the U.S. to convince other members [1] (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/09/sprj.irq.villepin/index.html). Other people claim it possible that the concentration of the U.S. media on France is an example of media manipulation, using France as a scapegoat to avoid mentioning and discussing all the other countries that were opposed to the plan. France was also viewed as using French political power to intimidate other countries that the US tried to intimidate itself. French President Jacques Chirac was quoted as telling eastern European nations that expressed support for the US that they "missed an opportunity to keep quiet" and were "not very well-mannered and a little careless of the dangers which come with a too-rapid alignment with the American position."
It was also argued that accusations of knee-jerk anti-Americanism from France were made so as to avoid discussing the actual reasons that France (and more generally global protests against war on Iraq) said it had to oppose the war - namely that France did not believe there was a clear and imminent danger from Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, that it was not consistent with the War on Terrorism, and that a war would only destabilize the Middle East while not providing long-term solutions.
Diplomatic friction
Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to France and Germany as "Old Europe" while referring to the many Central European countries which pledged diplomatic backing of the US war as "New Europe," raising long-extant fears that expansion of the European Union would be used by the US to keep Europe politically divided.
Chirac became the subject of harsh criticism in U.S. media [2] (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6005) [3] (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/899082/posts) and French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin emerged as a prominent critic of U.S. action in Iraq.
Cultural friction
In the winter of 2002-2003, the derogatory phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys", once used on The Simpsons television program in 1995 to refer to the French, became popular in certain Washington, DC circles. National Review contributor Jonah Goldberg claimed credit for making the term known. Many US commentators and politicians, including Andy Rooney on the television program 60 Minutes, characterized the French as being ungrateful for opposing U.S. foreign policy after U.S. soldiers fought to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II. Bumper stickers were produced in the United States which jokingly called for the United States to invade: "Iraq first, France next!", and "First Iraq, then Chirac!".
On March 11, 2003, the cafeteria menus in the three United States House of Representatives office buildings changed the name of french fries to freedom fries in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's opposition to the U.S. position on Iraq. French toast was also changed to freedom toast. (During World War I, in a similar move, attempts were made to replace the word sauerkraut with the term liberty cabbage, hamburger replaced with Liberty Sandwich, and frankfurter with hot dog, in menus and in popular speech; only the latter was successful.) Most Europeans, and a sizable number of Americans, dismissed these name changes as "gimmickry". Besides, the rebuke went amiss, since the term "French Fries" is not used in French -- in France, "French" fries are credited to Belgium.
Congressman Billy Tauzin from Louisiana, the only Cajun in the House of Representatives, removed the French language section of his official website because of anti-French sentiment. Congressman Roy Blunt began using jokes which alleged that the French were cowards.
It was also reported that many Americans purchased great quantities of French wine and poured it out on the streets instead of drinking it. Many, even other protesters, have noted that no matter what one does with the wine, buying it still provides money for those who produced it. In that regard it could be called an anti-protest, despite being an unintentional one.
Boycott
Many voices on the right in America called for a boycott of French products, but its effect was negligible. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in February 2004, the United States imported $2.26 billion in French goods and services, up from $2.18 billion in February 2002.[4] (http://www.amon-hen.com/archives/000171.html) However, the president of IC&A Inc, a business that imports only French products, reported demand fell in the vicinity of 40% to 50% from February 2003 levels.
Calls for boycott largely focused on products deemed typically French – wines, bottled water (Evian and others), lingerie and luxury items. These constitute a small minority of French trade, whereas lesser-profile products such as aircraft (for example, Airbus), machinery, and chemicals account for a larger share. This may explain the above discrepancy.
There was no large scale boycott of French products. But some wine manufacturers in France apparently suffered some loss of sales in the US as it was reported in the media. It is unclear whether it was due to downturn in economy as French wine tends to be expensive or due to anti-French sentiment.
Anti-French sentiment reactions
Reaction to anti-French sentiment in the US was a tenor of the anti-war protest in Montreal, Quebec on 15 March 2003, and may have been partially responsible for that city's 200,000-strong turn-out, being one of the largest of that day's worldwide protests. Montreal's various protests against the Iraq war were some of the largest in North America.
Popular anti-French insults and allegations
Because of the sometimes-strained relationship between the two countries, some Americans, including editorialists and congressmen, relish anti-French jokes. Some of these allude to events of the Second World War, alleged French military weakness and cooperation with the Third Reich. Such characterizations have been used by conservative editorialists to dismiss the French opposition to the War in Iraq as fear and appeasement with respect to radical Islamism. The French were also accused of ingratitude for the US intervention in World War I and the allied forces liberation of France in World War II. Many feel that the French government should express its gratitude to the American government by maintaining a foreign policy similar to that of the United States. Such arguments were especially intense during the lead-up to the War in Iraq [5] (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/14/60minutes/rooney/main540729.shtml). There was also criticism of French domestic policy, some claiming that French criticism of Israeli actions was motivated by anti-semitism, and some claimed that France is a "socialist" country, although France currently has a conservative government under Jacques Chirac.
Many anti-French American insults deal with the French culture. In some cases, these considerations are based on clichés as they exist everywhere and towards every country. Regarding the French, examples of this pejorative stereotyping include that the French were cowardly, dirty, arrogant, emotional and flamboyant, rude and disrespectful to tourists and that they enjoyed delicacies (escargot, pâté, etc...) some find disgusting. Some insulting terms, such as "frog" appear to be hundreds of years old and borrowed from the English.
See also Offensive terms per nationality.
Related articles
- American Revolutionary War
- Anti-Americanism
- Franco-U.S. relations
- Jacques-Donatien Le Ray
- Jingoism
- Lafayette Escadrille
- Louisiana Purchase
- Marquis de Lafayette
- Quasi-War
- Statue of Liberty
- War of 1812
- XYZ Affair
Books & References
- Richard Z. Chesnoff, The Arrogance of the French : Why They Can't Stand Us--and Why the Feeling Is Mutual, Sentinel, April, 2005 ISBN 1595230106
- Edward C.Knox, The New York Times Looks at France, The French Review, N°6, Vol.75, May 2002
- No other national or ethnic group appears to get the same continually negative treatment in print media reserved for France and the French, with the possible exception of Arabs or Palestinians, and even there, the treatment is not so much cultural as political, linked to a specific context or event.If one were to substitute, for example, "Mexican" or "Japanese" or "Indian" for "French", what would reader reaction be?".
- Martin A. Schain : "Transatlantic Tensions. From Conflicts of Interests to Conflict of Values?" Colloquium, CERI/GMF, 2 FEBRUARY 2-3, 2004 POLITICS,IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES Department of Politics and Center for European Studies New York University PDF document (http:www.ceri-sciences-po.org/archive/march04/artms.pdf)
- Pierre-André Taguieff : The force of prejudice : on racism and its doubles ( Minneapolis, Minn. : University of Minnesota Press, ©2001. ISBN 0816623724 0816623732 )
External links
- "Complete Military History" of France (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/france.html) (a site presenting an inexact historical account for the sake of mocking France.See also a previous version (http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=6085))
- "French Military History" (http://www.spacecityrock.com/2003_02_16_break-archive.html) (another point of view on the matter)
- Fuckfrance.com (http://www.fuckfrance.com) ( it borders on racism like www.i-hate-france.com www.francesucks.net www.francesucks.com ... see [6] (http://www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=317))
- Jokes from celebrities (http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokefrenchjokes2.htm)
- "Stop Bashing France Website" (http://www.miquelon.org)
- "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" (http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/20030214.asp)
- Jonah Goldberg column (http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldbergprint040601.html)
- Satirical website on anti-French sentiment (http://www.whitehouse.org/news/2003/022503.asp)
- Congressman Billy Tauzin's website (http://www.house.gov/tauzin/)
- Send Back the Statue of Liberty!- Satirical site mocking anti-French American sentiments (http://www.sendbackliberty.us/whoarewe.php)
- La vieille Europe et la puissante Amerique (http://docteurjp.free.fr/laguerre.htm) - French language personal essay written by one "Jean Pierre Serres"
- Synthese de la presse Americaine (http://www.info-france-usa.org/fr/actu/revue/synh238.asp) - French language summary of American media coverage by the Embassy of France in the US, from 7 Mar to 13 April 2003
- Editorial- "The Truth Behind the French Opposition to America" (http://www.arabia.com/newsfeed/article/english/0,14183,353113,00.html)
- Public Law 107-209 Conferring honorary citizenship of the United States posthumously on the Marquis de Lafayette (http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/pl107209.htm) 08/06/02 Signed by President George W. Bush
- France, the United States and the "War on Terrorism" (http://www.brookings.edu/fp/cusf/analysis/terrorism.htm) (U.S.-France Analysis, 1 January 2002)
- Pro-war, pro-Bush, pro-boycott of French products site (http://www.metrospy.com/).