The French and the Americans

S

Steve Bowles

Guest
JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded
"Does that include those who are buried here?"

DeGaulle did not respond.

You could have
heard a pin drop


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Trump has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly:
'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have
heard a pin drop.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied,
'Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have
heard a pin drop.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically..
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said,
'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained,
''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

You could have
heard a pin drop.

:D
 

Cristobal

Forum GOD!
Americans tend to have a short memory.

Funnily enough, if I remember correctly in the 1770s France was the only country willing to fund and help the Patriots against the British...

Not to mention the mess Americans are responsible for in the last decades in Middle East (our British friends must still wonder why their PM T. Blair sent troops in Irak; ah yes, the (imaginary) weapons of mass destruction presented in the UN... Where are the jokes about weapons of mass destruction?)

As for the anecdotes, Boing airplanes do not do so well lately (need a software update to avoid crashing apparently), German could have been in fact the language spoken in the US (Muhlenberg legend), Spanish being probably the next one, and there were actually French (assigned to No.4 Commando) landing in Normandy on the D-Day , not on Omaha but Sword beach.

To be fair, Russians took also a big part in winning the WW2, just saying.
 
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Chris

Forum DOG!
Staff member
Americans tend to have a short memory.

Funnily enough, if I remember correctly in the 1770s France was the only country willing to fund and help the Patriots against the British...

Not to mention the mess American are responsible for in the last decades in Middle East (our British friends must still wonder why their PM T. Blair sent troops in Irak; ah yes, the (imaginary) weapons of mass destruction presented in the UN... Where are the jokes about weapons of mass destruction?)

As for the anecdotes, Boing airplanes do not do so well lately (need a software update to avoid crashing apparently), German could have been in fact the language spoken in the US (Muhlenberg legend), Spanish being probably the next one, and there were actually French (assigned to No.4 Commando) landing in Normandy on the D-Day , not on Omaha but Sword beach.

To be fair, Russians took also a big part in winning the WW2, just saying.
Don’t be silly, I’ve seen Saving Private Ryan, the Americans won WWII single-handed probably helped by the Enigma machine they captured in U-571.
 

Dr Watson

James
folks-i-dont-know-what-to-tell-you-this-bait-27681064.png


Seriously though, I never understood that "cheese eating surrender monkeys" nonsense. Have these people never heard of the old guard who stood their ground at Waterloo, securing the retreat of what was left of the French army before being utterly annihilated themselves by artillery? Have they not heard of the 33rd SS Charlemagne, comprised entirely of French volunteers who were one of the very last axis forces to surrender... They held on longer than most German divisions!

They may not have fought for causes we agree with but you must respect their soldiering ability, they can fight like demons when they must. If ever I find myself in a hopeless battle against insurmountable odds I would like one of those Frenchman at my side :hotdrink:
 

Grishnak

Forum GOD!
I think these are jokes, (passed off as anecdotes).

I have never met a bad Nationality of people, though I have met bad people.
I’ve also met some very honourable people, Japanese and Seikh namely, and seen this reflected in further meetings I have had, but do not imagine all to be the same.

I have also “put my foot in it” a number of times through my life.
 
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S

Steve Bowles

Guest
First of all, if memory serves, it was John Wayne who won WWII. Not only did he fight in Europe, but in the Pacific theatre as well. Sometimes people need their memory jogged. And I don't see any of the above anecdotes as being untruthful -- or exaggerated. They all come straight out of various mainstream publications. If the French (or anyone else) feels jealous of the U.S. military might, you might want to encourage your political leadership to ante up their obligatory 2% NATO dues. The U.S. taxpayer is shelling out 4.25%, while the Germans are grudgingly paying 1.25%. Of course, you can always rely on the EU army for your defence. Just saying. :)
 
S

Steve Bowles

Guest
Americans tend to have a short memory.

Funnily enough, if I remember correctly in the 1770s France was the only country willing to fund and help the Patriots against the British...

Not to mention the mess American are responsible for in the last decades in Middle East (our British friends must still wonder why their PM T. Blair sent troops in Irak; ah yes, the (imaginary) weapons of mass destruction presented in the UN... Where are the jokes about weapons of mass destruction?)

As for the anecdotes, Boing airplanes do not do so well lately (need a software update to avoid crashing apparently), German could have been in fact the language spoken in the US (Muhlenberg legend), Spanish being probably the next one, and there were actually French (assigned to No.4 Commando) landing in Normandy on the D-Day , not on Omaha but Sword beach.

To be fair, Russians took also a big part in winning the WW2, just saying.
We've not forgotten Lafayette. Or De Gaulle.
 

TobyC

Patriot
First of all, if memory serves, it was John Wayne who won WWII. Not only did he fight in Europe, but in the Pacific theatre as well. Sometimes people need their memory jogged. And I don't see any of the above anecdotes as being untruthful -- or exaggerated. They all come straight out of various mainstream publications. If the French (or anyone else) feels jealous of the U.S. military might, you might want to encourage your political leadership to ante up their obligatory 2% NATO dues. The U.S. taxpayer is shelling out 4.25%, while the Germans are grudgingly paying 1.25%. Of course, you can always rely on the EU army for your defence. Just saying. :)
The EU army's only purpose is to enforce the kool-aid consumption.
 
S

Steve Bowles

Guest
View attachment 46097

Seriously though, I never understood that "cheese eating surrender monkeys" nonsense. Have these people never heard of the old guard who stood their ground at Waterloo, securing the retreat of what was left of the French army before being utterly annihilated themselves by artillery? Have they not heard of the 33rd SS Charlemagne, comprised entirely of French volunteers who were one of the very last axis forces to surrender... They held on longer than most German divisions!

They may not have fought for causes we agree with but you must respect their soldiering ability, they can fight like demons when they must. If ever I find myself in a hopeless battle against insurmountable odds I would like one of those Frenchman at my side :hotdrink:
Yes, Dien Bin Phu comes to mind.
 

Chris

Forum DOG!
Staff member
When I originally heard the one about the passport it was an Englishman in Germany explaining that the last time he was there was 60 years ago, it was night-time and he didn’t land.

Nobody is jealous of the US, Americans just like to claim that we are.
 

R181

Grumpy old man
First of all, if memory serves, it was John Wayne who won WWII. Not only did he fight in Europe, but in the Pacific theatre as well. Sometimes people need their memory jogged. And I don't see any of the above anecdotes as being untruthful -- or exaggerated. They all come straight out of various mainstream publications. If the French (or anyone else) feels jealous of the U.S. military might, you might want to encourage your political leadership to ante up their obligatory 2% NATO dues. The U.S. taxpayer is shelling out 4.25%, while the Germans are grudgingly paying 1.25%. Of course, you can always rely on the EU army for your defence. Just saying. :)
John Wayne never served in the US Military.

I wonder what mainstream media publications those were?

As to the obligatory 2% of GDP to be spent on NATO:

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/07/trumps-false-claims-at-nato/

Bob
 
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