Anti-French sentiment in the United States is a strong opposition to all things French, with a particular focus on the actions and attitudes of the French government.
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Soon after the end of the Second World War relations between the United States and France began to sour; the US public and government were overtly critical of France's war in Algeria and in Indochina. The United States pushed for France to end its colonial empire.
American-French relationships became far worse under Charles de Gaulle, who rejected the position of France as weaker partner of the US and attempted to turn France into an equal of the United States. This included demanding equal status in NATO, and then pulling out of NATO's integrated military command when this was refused. France also ended its traditionally close relations with US ally Israel and began to support the Palestinian cause in the Middle East. De Gaulle's government began to criticize the US war in Vietnam, which was generally unpopular in France. Some believed that de Gaulle's support for Quebec independence was more a bid to aggravate the States than to actually foster Quebec independence. France also tried to develop friendlier relations with the communist world, including the Soviet Union. French pursuit of nuclear weapons and an independent military capability were also designed to free France from its dependency upon the US. During de Gaulle's time in office, Franco-American relations reached a great low and there were accusations from American comentators that France was "no longer a Western power."
Relations improved somewhat under de Gaulle's successors, but France and the US continued to view themselves fundamentally as rivals rather than colleagues. The French, more than any other nation, see the European Union as a method of counter-balancing American power, and thus work towards such ends as having the Euro challenge the American dollar's preeminent position in global trade. France has also worked hard to maintain a number of dependencies in western Africa. The American people and American government remained lukewarm towards France, and pursued much closer relationships with other states such as the United Kingdom.
Anti-French sentiment in the United States returned to the fore in the wake of France's refusal to endorse the 2003 US plan to invade Iraq in the UN Security Council. While other nations were also openly opposed to the plan (notably Germany, Russia, and the People's Republic of China) and even those countries who supported the US did so against the will of their population (90% of Spain was against the war and only 13% of the UK backed a war without UN approval), France was singled out for particularly ferocious criticism. France was accused of knee-jerk anti-Americanism, of hypocritically acting out of economic interests in Iraq's oil (a similar charge was leveled at Russia, with less ferocity), and of hypocritically sending a military presence to Ivory Coast during the Iraq crisis.
Since many other nations were also
openly opposed to the plan to invade Iraq, most wondered why France was singled out. Both of these permanent members of the Security Council were openly opposed on March 11, 2003, to the proposed new U.N. resolution, with France and Russia both promising a veto. Many people (including some French people) feel that France was singled out because they were one of two members of the security council who openly threatened a veto on March 11, while other people claim it possible that the concentration of the U.S. media on France is an example of media manipulation, using France as a scapegoat to avoid mentioning and discussing all the other countries that were opposed to the plan. It was also argued that accusations of knee-jerk anti-Americanism from France were made so as to avoid discussing the actual reasons that France said it had to oppose the war - namely that France did not believe there was a clear and imminent danger from Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and that a war would only destabilize the Middle East while not providing long-term solutions, a position that seems prescient now that no weapons have been found and the US is having a difficult time restoring order to the country..
Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to France and Germany as "old Europe" while referring to the many Eastern European countries which pledged diplomatic backing of the US war as "New Europe", raising long-extant fears that expansion of the European Union would be used by the US to keep Europe politically divided.
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin became a symbol of the anti-war effort, when he gave an anti-war speech in the United Nations, which was roundly applauded, breaking conventional UN decorum.
In the winter of 2002-2003, a derogatory phrase—"cheese-eating surrender monkeys"—used on The Simpsons television program to refer to the French became au courant in Washington, DC circles. National Review contributor Jonah Goldberg claimed credit for making the term known. Many US commentators and politicians, including Andy Rooney on the television program 60 Minutes, referred to the French as ungrateful for opposing US foreign policy after US soldiers fought to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II. Bumper stickers were produced in the United States which supposedly-jokingly called for the United States to invade: "Iraq first, France next!", and "First Iraq, then Chirac!".
On March 11, 2003, the cafeteria menus in the three United States House of Representatives office buildings changed the name of french fries to freedom fries in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's opposition to the U.S. position on Iraq. (French fries actually come from Belgium.) French toast was also changed to freedom toast. (During World War I, in a similar move, attempts were made to replace the word sauerkraut with the term liberty cabbage and frankfurter with hot dog in menus and in popular speech: only the latter was successful. During World War I, French toast replaced German toast as the popular term for that dish.) Europeans generally dismissed these name changes as "gimmickry".
Congressman Billy Tauzin from Louisiana, the only Cajun in the United States House of Representatives, removed the French language section of his official website because of anti-French sentiment.
It was also reported that many Americans purchased great quantities of French wine and poured it out on the streets instead of drinking it. Many, even other protesters, have noted that no matter what one does with the wine, buying it still provides money for those who produced it. In that regard it could be called an anti-protest, depsite being an unintentional one.
According to the president of IC&A Inc, a business that imports only French products, demand for these products fell in the vicinity of 40% to 50% from February 2003 levels. The Movement of French Enterprises (Medef) has reported that "French enterprises are suffering today from the differences that have arisen among states over the Iraqi question." Though aware of the sentiment expressed toward them by some Americans, French people are only expressing a mild anti-Americanism, and have not been particularly trying to boycott American products.
Reaction to anti-French sentiment in the US was a tenor of the anti-war protest in Montreal, Quebec on March 15, 2003, and may have been partially responsible for that city's 200,000-strong turn-out, being one of the largest of that day's worldwide protests. Recurring protests in Montreal continue to be the largest
in North America.
There are many theories as to why Franco-American relations are often so rocky. Some have argued it is friction between the fundamentally Protestant democracy of the anglosphere and the Catholic rooted culture of France and much of the rest of Europe.
For information on the relationship between the United States and France see:
Post World-War II
Iraq War
Diplomatic friction
Cultural friction
Boycott
Anti-war, Pro-France demonstrators
Theories
External links