MARCH 11, 2003
MOVEABLE FEAST
By Thane Peterson
Readers, Andy Rooney, and Me | I criticized the 60 Minutes star for his take on France's seeming ingratitude to the U.S. and now find myself both praised and pilloried
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What is it about France that gets so many Americans' goat? I got 65 e-mail messages -- more than I've gotten about any other article -- on my column about France and World War II (see BW Online, 2/24/03, "Stop Frying the French"). Many of those who wrote were grateful French people, and many of the Americans who wrote were highly critical. In general, though -- for once -- the mail seemed to be slightly in my favor.
Pro and con, I got so many eloquent notes that I decided to devote this week's column to readers' comments. With apologies in advance to the many fine missives that can't be included, here's a sampling of what readers had to say about the current state of French-U.S. relations. Note: Some letters have been edited for length, and all are being used with the permission of the writers, some of whom preferred not to be identified.
As a French reader of your article, I just have two words for you: Thank you! Despite this disagreement between our two nations, I trust in the eternal friendship that will remain between Americans and French of heart.
P.S. All Parisians just hate Parisian waiters -- we still have to deal with them on a daily basis.
-- Thibault Lesénécal, Paris
I lost two uncles in the invasion of Normandy, and a third lost a leg after stepping on a German landmine near Aachen in 1944. I spent 26 months in Germany in 1959 through 1962 during the DeGaulle flap and did my best as an American GI trying to get along with these supremely arrogant people but obviously failed. Somehow I thought my time in an armored cavalry regiment along the East-West border was protecting these people. Again, I must have been wrong.
Frankly, both German and French people can go to hell, and I hope we never, ever have to support them again.
-- Morris Foutch, Vancouver, Wash.
Thank you very much for your kind words about our people and nation. Whatever our position on a potential war in Iraq might be, I do believe that our two nations, and their mutual friendship, deserve better than the appalling caricature that they seem to be so keen at throwing at each other's face recently.
P.S. Thanks also and above all for your highly appreciated effort aimed at reestablishing the truth about this French/Jerry Lewis thing. I must say that I have always been puzzled by this.
-- R.D. (a Frenchman living in Boston)
The French will NEVER be able to repay their debt to the U.S. [for] pulling their asses out of Nazi occupation. Yes, Russia was an important ally that lost many lives, but the fact remains that had the U.S. not entered the war, we would be now working with some heir of Hitler as he rules Europe.
You're just another Neville Chamberlain who helped kill thousands through his efforts to appease Hitler. Had we disposed of that little "paper hanger" in 1939 or 1940, how many lives do you think we would have saved?
-- Sam Stringer, Chicago, who served 24 years in the U.S Army, including stints in Vietnam, Desert Storm, Grenada, and Panama
I feel the need to challenge one point: "Arguably, the war in Europe would have lasted far longer and been far bloodier (or even, perhaps, unwinnable) were it not for the extreme losses and privations the Russians suffered keeping Hitler occupied on the Eastern front."
Arguably? I would have expected a more realistic evaluation to read "Without a doubt." Soviet Russia was the force that broke the back of the German army, with even Stalin-hating Churchill admitting "the Russians tore the guts out of the German fighting machine" (or words to that effect). For every Wermacht division deployed to the West, another three went to the Russian front. Without the Ruskie effort and sacrifices, Hitler's Germany may well have been unassailable.
-- Gary Sellars, Yangon, Union of Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma)
I feel that Andy Rooney's editorial cheapens the sacrifice of everyone involved. As an avid history buff, I have read many veterans' memoirs and journals from the period, and I don't recall that anyone was fighting for "political favors in the future."
Maybe my belief is naive, but I choose to believe that our soldiers underwent hardships and sacrificed their lives for bigger and better reasons than gratitude. I believe they did it because it was the right thing to do. I feel that their sacrifice is a gift, and if you expect something in return, it is not really a gift.
-- Luke Chiao, Livermore, Calif.
Don't forget that France helped save our butts from the English back in the Revolutionary War.... Come to think of it, they seem to be doing the same thing again today, though many [Americans] are still too dumb to realize it.
-- Mark Christopherson, Seattle
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Copyright 2003, Bloomberg L.P.
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