Article

2004-06-19 Europe

VDH: America should give up on the shattered Atlantic Alliance

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Posted by ed 2004-06-19 07:52|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 As much as it pains me to defend the past honor of a country that needs to be taken to the woodshed today, here goes:

"Most Frenchmen either refused to resolutely fight the Germans or passively collaborated. The idea of a broad resistance was mostly a postwar Gallic nationalist myth.

"Those who spearheaded a few attacks on German occupiers were more likely led by Communists than by allied sympathizers..."

Most, mostly and more likely. Victor paints with a sloppy brush. He dismisses the efforts of those who did resist, actively or passively. The accounts I have read of the French Resistance paint the resisters as brave - if not crazy-brave - patriots, not opportunistic communists. Especially poignant is the recent book In the Shadows of War: An American Pilot's Odyssey Through Occupied France and the Camps of Nazi Germany in which many of the Frenchmen who help the pilot paid the ultimate price. The school marm who protects him resolutely fought the Nazis at times while those around her passivley resisted them. They were not communists.

A few attacks? Go read Bodyguard of Lies, a book about the intelligence operations surrounding D-day (and the definitive book on how intel operations should work.) "Setting Europe Ablaze" with resistance fighters was a fetish of Churchill's and thus his intelligence agencies. They provided continuous support to mayhem-makers in France and depended on them to raise cain on D-day itself to keep the Germans distracted. British intelligence loved the French Resistance as a tool. They put agents into the French Resistance with bogus info knowing full well their cells were already compromised by the Germans - a neat and ruthless trick to whisper lies from Churchill's mouth to Hitler's ears. French agents went to their deaths thinking they had betrayed the D-day landings under torture. Incidently, I wholly approve of the trick. Everything US intelligence learned and forgot, they learned at the knees of the British.

Is VDH condemning France today because communists fought for her yesterday? FDR took no such high-minded and foolish luxury for himself regarding the Soviets.

Posted by Zpaz 2004-06-19 11:58:19 AM|| 2004-06-19 11:58:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 So you're saying "just because most of them were cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys doesn't mean that there wasn't a small portion of French who weren't useless gutless turds" ? Point taken.

Posted by Anonymous5286 2004-06-19 12:18:46 PM|| 2004-06-19 12:18:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Mostly.

Posted by Zpaz 2004-06-19 1:32:22 PM|| 2004-06-19 1:32:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Rather than disparage France, it should suffice to say that there is no longer a convergence of interests between our two countries. We, as they, must pursue our own interests. France bled white in WWI and dropped forever from the ranks of major powers. It is very frustrating for the French elites who, convinced of their own absolute superiority to the rest of the world, find that most countries just don't care what they think or do.

Posted by RWV 2004-06-19 11:33:14 PM|| 2004-06-19 11:33:14 PM|| Front Page Top

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