Terms of estrangement: French-American relations in perspective

Survival

Volumn 47, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 73-92

  Serfaty, Simon ^a,b  

^a OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 23844558792     PISSN: 00396338     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00396330500248011     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Michael Brenner and Guillaume Parmentier, Reconcilable Differences: US-French Relations in the New Era (Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 2002).
2. Transcript of interview, French Foreign Ministry, 14 December 1999.
3. Jean-Philippe Mathy, 'The System of Francophobia', French Politics, Culture and Society, vol. 21, summer 2003, p. 24.
4. Jacques Andréani, 'Les Européens auront les Américains qu'ils méritent', Commentaire, no. 94, summer 2000.
5. Nancy L. Green, 'Le Melting Pot: Made in America, Produced in France', The Journal of American History, December 1999, p. 1189.
6. See Simon Serfaty, 'France-Etats-Unis: La querelle permanente', Relations Internationales et Stratégiques, no. 25, spring 1997, pp. 52-59;
7. Anti-Europeanism in America and Anti-Americanism in Europe' in Christina Balis and Simon Serfaty (eds), Visions of America and Europe: September 11, Iraq, and Transatlantic Relations (Washington DC: CSIS Press, 2004), pp. 3-22.
8. Stanley Hoffmann, 'To Be or Not to Be French', in Linda B. Miller and Michael Joseph Smith (eds), Ideas and Ideals, Essays on Politics in Honor of Stanley Hoffmann (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993), p. 32.
9. According to Eugen Weber, 'France is what the French make of it, [but] the French are what we make of them.' 'Of Stereotypes and of the French', Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 25, 1990, p. 199.
10. As noted, already, by Alexis de Tocqueville, L'Ancien régime, vol. III, p. 8;
11. and as repeated, among many others, by André Siegfried, when he referred to 'la place à part' held by France in the United States (and, he could have added, the United States in France). Cited in Pierre Guerlain, Miroirs transatlantiques (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1996), p. 9.
12. In the 1990 American census, 10.3 million Americans reported French ancestry, as compared to 13.6m in the 1980 census. Jacqueline Lindenfeld, The French in the United States: An Ethnographic Study (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2000), p. 8;
13. Damien-Claude Bélanger and Claude Bélanger, 'French Canadian Emigration to the United States, 1840-1930', Quebec History, Marianapolis College, 23 August 2000. The rich cultural tradition embodied by these emigrants, mostly from Canada and Arcadia, began to fade at the turn of the century, when they were 'fast blending into American society'(Lindenfeld, p. 3) and as 'many stopped speaking French, changed their names, and tried to blend into the melting pot;
14. Peter Woolfson, 'The Aging French-American and the Impact of Acculturation', Ethnic Groups, vol. 8, 1990, p. 181. In 1990, fewer than 120,000 people living in the United States claimed to have been born in France, and a majority of them had not sought US citizenship.
15. Laurie Collier Hilstrom, 'French Americans: Overview', Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (New York: Gale Research, 1995), p. 660.
16. Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 329.
17. David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), p. 192.
18. Quoted in Charles G. Cogan, Oldest Allies, Guarded Friend: The United States and France since 1940 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994), p. 200. On this issue as on nearly everything else, Hamilton disagreed as he rejoiced over his belief that 'there is no resemblance between what was the cause of America and what is the cause of France' - a difference, he insisted, that' is no less great than that between liberty and licentiousness'.
19. France 'is the great country it is probably because it was molded down the centuries by antagonisms and tensions between tribes, clans, cliques, coteries, guilds, camarillas, sects, parties, factions within the parties', and much, much more. Luigi Barzini, The Europeans (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), p. 138. France, observes Michel Wieviorka, 'a trouvé sa justification dans une certaine capacité ou une certaine prétention... à déliver à toute la planète, et à chacun de ses propres citoyens, le message des droits de l'homme et de la raison'. Michel Wieviorka, 'Qu'est-ce qu'être français aujourd'hui? La désacralisation de l'identité française', Le Figaro, 11 June 2004.
20. France, observes Michel Wieviorka, 'a trouvé sa justification dans une certaine capacité ou une certaine prétention... à déliver à toute la planète, et à chacun de ses propres citoyens, le message des droits de l'homme et de la raison'. Michel Wieviorka, 'Qu'est-ce qu'être français aujourd'hui? La désacralisation de l'identité française', Le Figaro, 11 June 2004.
21. Allocution du Général de Gaulle, 31 December 1962, André Passeron, De Gaulle parle (Paris: Plon, 1962), p. 263.
22. Hubert Védrine, Les cartes de la France à l'heure de la mondialisation (Paris: Librairie Fayard, 2000), p. 10.
23. Jean-Philippe Mathy, French Resistance: The French-American Culture Wars (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), p. 57.
24. George F. Kennan, Realities of American Foreign Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1954), p. 15.
25. For example, see George Scott, The Rise and Fall of the League of Nations (New York: Macmillan, 1973), pp. 96, 255. An ailing President Wilson went so far as to wish he could tell the French ambassador to his face that he would like to see Germany clean up' his country.
26. Quoted in Selig Adler, The Isolationist Impulse: Its Twentieth Century Reaction (New York: Free University Press, 1957), p. 144.
27. Andrew Shennan, The Fall of France, 1940 (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2000), p. ix.
28. Thierry de Montbrial, 'Franco-American Relations: A Historical-Structural Analysis', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, vol. 17, no. 3 (October 2004), pp. 459-60.
29. Quoted in John Harper, American Visions of Europe: Franklin D. Roosevelt, George F. Kennan and Dean G. Acheson (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 219.
30. Also, George Kennan, Memoirs 1950-1963 (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1972) pp. 445-7.
31. Ambassador Bruce is quoted in G. John Ikenberry, 'Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony', Political Science Quarterly, vol. 104, no. 3, autumm 1989, p. 391.
32. See Simon Serfaty, La France vue par les Etats-Unis: Réflexions sur la francophobie à Washington (Paris, IFRI, 2003).
33. For example, it has been reported, 'when ethnic violence flared in Kosovo in March [2002], [US Ambassador to NATO Nicholas] Burns wanted to know how to stop it quickly, [but French Ambassador Benoit] d'Aboville, who says he already knew extra troops were on the way, wanted to find out why the violence happened in the first place'. Philip Shishkin, 'Playing the Role of US Foil', Wall Street Journal, 2 August 2004.
34. George H.W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998), pp. 76, 475. For a good account of Brent Scowcrofts ambivalence about France's 'views of the future of Europe and our role in it',
35. see ibid., pp. 266-8.
36. For Rice's concern over Mitterrand's position, which she found to be confrontational, see Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, Germany Unified: A Study in Statecraft (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), p. 237 and passim.
37. For a French view of the same events, see Hubert Védrine, Les mondes de François Mitterrand: 1981-1995 (Paris: Fayard, 1996), p. 729.
38. Justin Vaisse, 'America Francophobia Takes A New Turn',
39. Edward C. Knox,'Déjà Views: how Americans look at France',
40. and Jean-Philippe Mathy, 'The System of Francophobia, French Politics, Culture and Society vol. 21, no. 2, summer 2003.
41. James A. Baker, III with Thomas M. DeFrank, The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War, and Peace, 1989-1992 (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), pp. 314, 324, 370.
42. As noted pointedly by the Israeli historian Elias Sanbar, who came to that conclusion while observing Secretary Baker and his associates in the early 1990s. 'La France, Israel et les Palestiniens', Le Nouvel Observateur, 10-17 February 2005, p. 14.
43. As asked by Secretary of State James Baker of then-Foreign Minister Roland Dumas. Quoted in Michael Gonzalez, 'Can America Trust the French', Wall Street Journal, 23 November 1999.
44. Quoted in Jim Mannion, 'NATO Should Reconsider Including France in Decision Making', Agence France Presse, 12 February 2003;
45. Martin Walker, 'Top Pentagon Adviser Says France No Longer US Ally', Washington Times, 5 February 2003;
46. Thomas Friedman, 'Our War With France', New York Times, 9 February 2003, and 'Vote France Off the Island', New York Times, 9 February 2003.
47. Thomas Friedman 'Vote France Off the Island', New York Times, 9 February 2003.
48. Richard Z. Chesnoff, The Arrogance of the French; Why They Can't stand Us - and Why the Feeling Is Mutual (New York: Sentinel, 2005), p. 23.
49. David Gelernter, 'Replacing the United Nations', Weekly Standard, 17 March 2003, p. 25.
50. Michael Ledeen is quoted by Stuart Reid, 'The Anti-Europeans', The American Conservative, 27 January 2002.
51. Niall Ferguson, 'Europe's Response to Iraq Reflects an Old Rift, New York Times, 23 February 2003.
52. For a commendable rebuttal from a former senior official who nonetheless sharply disagreed with the French policies in Iraq, see Jim Woolsey, 'Not All Bad', Wall Street Journal, 20 February 2003.
53. For example, see Charles Krauthammer, and 'Europe and "Those People"', Washington Post, 26 April, 2002;
54. and George Will, '"Final Solution", Phase 2', Washington Post, 2 May 2002.
55. Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003);
56. Tony Blankley, 'France Blackmails Poland', Washington Times, 19 February 2003.
57. Adrian Basora, then a senior staffer with the National Security Council and previously posted at the US Embassy in Paris. Quoted in Zelikow and Rice, Germany Unified, p. 206.
58. Gordon Smith, 'A Message to Britain and Europe', The European Journal, vol. 7, no. 6, April 2000, pp. 5-6.
59. Timothy Garton Ash, Free World. America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West (New York: Random House, 2004), p. 88.
60. More on this theme in Simon Serfaty, Stay the Course: European Unity and Transatlantic Solidarity (Washington DC: CSIS/Praeger, 1997) and Memories of Europe's Future: Farewell to Yesteryear (Washington DC: The CSIS Press, 2000).
61. and Memories of Europe's Future: Farewell to Yesteryear (Washington DC: The CSIS Press, 2000).
62. Moises Naim, 'Anti-Americanism's Nasty Taste', Financial Times, 24 February 2003, p. 11.
63. Barzini, The Europeans, pp. 219 ff.
64. More than half of the French (53%) have a favourable view of America's citizens, this is still significantly lower than in Germany (68%) or in Britain (80%). Trends 2005 (Pew Research Center, 2005), p. 114. Yet a mere 20% of all Americans describe France as 'a faithful ally', with 17% of the French showing a similar appreciation of the United States.
65. 'Français et Américains gardent une vision negative les uns des autres', Le Monde, 18 June 2005, p. 3.
66. Invoking the 'very high risks' raised by 'the kind of action' that was being discussed at the highest levels of the Kennedy administration, Secretary of State Dean Rusk warned that 'it's one thing for Britain and France to be isolated within the alliance over Suez. But it's quite another thing for the alliance if the United States should get itself in the same position'. Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow (eds), The Kennedy Tapes, Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 127-8.
67. 'The French', emphasised Margaret Thatcher, 'were the only European country, apart from ourselves, with the stomach for a fight.' Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (New York: Harper Collins, 1993), p. 819.
68. Kenneth Timmerman, The French Betrayal of America (New York: Crown Forum, 2004), p. 147;
69. Philip H. Gordon and Jeremy Shapiro, Allies at War: America, Europe, and the Crisis over Iraq (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004), p. 120.
70. In an interview with CBS and CNN just as the war was about to begin, Chirac, actually concerned over both the impending war but also his own 'war' with his US counterpart, pleaded: 'France is not pacifist. We are not anti-American either. We are not just going to use our veto to nag and annoy the US. But we just feel there is another option ... than war. 'Quoted in Mark Danner, 'The Secret Way to War', The New York Review of Books, 9 June 2005, p. 73.
71. Philip H. Gordon, The Crisis in Iraq, Iraq Memo No. 1, Brookings Institution, 24 February 2003.
72. 'Global Opinion: The Spread of Anti Americanism', in Trends 2005 (Washington DC: The Pew Research Center, 2005); Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland, 6 April 2005.
73. Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland, 6 April 2005.
74. In 2005, such a public consensus proved to be fraught with consequences for the United States as the heads of state and government that had chosen to follow Bush in Iraq were either replaced by their opposition or else weakened to an extent likely to limit their availability to join another US-led coalition of the willing in the future.
75. More on this theme in Simon Serfaty, The Vital Partnership: Power and Order (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).
76. For a detailed and factual survey of the Euro-Atlantic economy, see Daniel S. Hamilton and Joseph P. Quinlan, Partners in Prosperity: The Changing Geography of the Transatlantic Economy (Washington DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2004).
77. Theodore H. White, Fire in the Ashes (New York: William Sloane, 1953), pp. 6-7.
78. Alain Minc, Ce monde qui vient (Paris: Grasset, 2004), pp. 1-43.