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France
Alain de Chalvron, France 2 | June 2003
France 2's Alain de Chalvron explains how the French admire America, despite the recent, very public, falling-out over the Iraq conflict.
Between the French and the U.S. there is a typical love-hate relationship. But make no mistake, there is not only hate. Love is as important.
France is the only major European country that has never been at war with the U.S.
When some American newspapers had, during the Iraq crisis, large headlines: "Don't forget D-Day," the French were thinking: "Don't forget Lafayette."
The consciousness that the American soldiers brought us liberty in 1944 is in every French mind.
One of the most popular songs in the 1970s was "Les Ricains" thanking the GIs for D-Day.
Even when the war started in Iraq, 53 per cent of the French declared they hoped for a coalition victory, despite the fact 78 per cent of them were against the war.
The link with the U.S. has always been very strong in France; the outpouring of sadness after the September 11 attacks was huge, and a spontaneous pro-American demonstration of solidarity was immediately held at the Place de la Concorde.
Nobody had more applause than the New York firefighters who came as special guests of the July 14 parade on the Champs Elysées.
France is a friend and supporter of the U.S., which has been vital for America.
Remember the Cuba crisis? De Gaulle, considered as the number 1 anti- American politician, gave the U.S. immediate and unconditional support, refusing to look at the documents that the White House sent him saying: "The words of President Kennedy are sufficient."
So did Chirac on Afghanistan after September 11.
'Aggressive U.S. reaction'
But sometimes you also hate those on whom you rely, especially if they seem to consider you, not as a partner, but as a vassal.
On the Iraq issue, we never believed that it was vital for the security of the U.S. Therefore, we did not believe we were obliged to support President Bush's policy. More than 80 per cent of the French supported the policy of their president.
"The worst insult levelled at Bush by the French press was 'cowboy.'"
The very aggressive reaction of the U.S. administration and the media seemed largely exaggerated.
No major French newspapers treated Bush as Chirac was treated in the U.S. and Great Britain.
The worst insult levelled at Bush by the French press was "cowboy," no pejorative words were used against the American people themselves, nor was there a call for a boycott of American products.
The fact is that we have seen this war as the unilateral act of a superpower that wants oil, the control of a strategic country and to give unconditional help to Israel.
The result is that today, the first word linked to the U.S. in France is: "power," rather than "liberty" and "democracy" as before, despite D-Day.
And then there is the traditional anti-Americanism on social or cultural matters – the suspicion that America wants to impose its way of life, language, culture, food, economy and its ultra-liberalism.
This is the reaction of David versus Goliath, of "old Europe" versus "new America," and it is nothing very serious, and nothing that prevents love.
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