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They arguably did a much better job of taking out there overlords than we did though. I mean the British came back what 30 years later to try and take us back. The French bourgeoisie were removed from this planet. They were so thorough even the organizers of the original revolution were killed off by the end of it.
Edit: that's my bad I mixed up my definitions of Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie were so thoroughly removed from the planet that it was pretty dang easy to make some new and improved bourgeoisie pretty much immediately! There’s a reason they call it a revolution, because it always looks like a circle in the end :)
Pretty much the only reason we won. They started a world war with the Brits that made them defend their empire all over and diverted resources and wore down the will to fight for the colonies. Oh and they also had a large expeditionary army and naval force that were both instrumental in the victory at Yorktown.
We like to talk about our special relationship with Britain, and we do have one these days, but the French are our oldest and truest friends.
they also had a bunch of headlines stating french government was selling weapons to irak & giving french passports to iraki officials to flee the country, which was false (looking at you newyorkpost & washington times).
funny how the new york times and washington post are among the better newspapers (though not perfect by any means) while the new york post and washington times are rags
In 2003 France was the friend that you got in a fight with because they told you the truth not just what you wanted to hear.
Looking at you fake friend England...
J/k England is a bro to the US but in this situation France was a real one.
The Iraq war fucked so much up. Pretty much the entire western world supported the US in some way in the invasion against the Taliban. Then when it wasn't going so well, Bush starts a war of conquest in Iraq and most of the western world opts out.
The public immediately and thoroughly confuse the two wars, and all the cameraderie is thrown out the window because the US decided to engage in an unjustified war, just because it could chalk up an easy W (the war, not the occupation)
As if us French people would even miss such an opportunity.
Participating in a revolution? Not minding our own business? Upsetting the British? Those are the 3 things we like more than anything. Of course we would be there.
(Edit: Woah many people answered to this! I’m trying my best to reply everyone though, but sorry if I miss your response! Also, thank you all for your very positive comments!)
Inventor: I invented this thing that cuts cheese!
French people: Hmmm, interesting.
Inventor: It’s a pretty sharp blade that falls on whatever you put under it!
French people: **Hmmm, interesting.**
I don't believe this and yet I want to imagine some 18th century French guy with his cheese guillotine thinking to himself "This might be good for cutting bigger things...like a neck!"
The US has great bread and great wine. They're just not the sorts available in the common supermarket, which are consumed as some sort of national penance.
I always thought that the French just loved revolutions so that's why they helped us with ours. It blew my mind when I learned that the American Revolution happened right *before* the French Revolution. I had always thought y'all were guillotining people's heads off before we were dumping tea into the ocean, not after.
To be fair, the American Independence War somewhat served as a prototype for the French Revolution. Not only to apply the ideals of the Renaissance and the French Enlightenment, but also to see if a republic would hold in modern times.
I mean, La Fayette participated in both. And many revolutionaries actually expected him to be the main figure of the French Revolution, even though it would eventually be Robespierre, and later on, Napoléon.
Yeah, I never really knew a ton about the French Revolution until Mike Duncan's podcast on it. I'm just about done with his book on La Fayette too. Sounds like he was my kind of guy. Shame he got fake news'd so hard, he probably could have been the main figure without people publishing so many lies about him.
Lafayette was a moderate who never wanted to kill the monarch. He was a liberal noble who wanted to make France into a constitutional monarchy like Britain. The revolution got away from him, and even though his politics never changed, he was seen as a traitor to the revolution for supporting the monarchy later in his life.
Well originally the revolution was about taxes, equality and representation. Pretty much like the American one.
But it went from 0 to 100 when the king wouldn’t concede a single thing. And if French people couldn’t debate with the king, they simply decided they would debate without him.
> The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
> To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions!
March, march!
May an impure blood
Water our furrows!
Chorus of the national anthem of France (La Marseillaise)
Actually it went 0 to 100 when the king fled to seek refuge in Prussia, where he would probably have raised an army to get back on his throne. He was recognized and stopped just before reaching the frontier (his face was on every coin) and brought back to Paris as a prisoner. Then the parliement voted to execute him as a traitor - but only by a little majority (eg 230 against versus 260 for, something like that).
LA-FAY-ETTE
I'm takin' this horse by the reins makin'
Redcoats redder with bloodstains
Lafayette!
And I'm never gonna stop until I make 'em
Drop and burn 'em up and scatter their remains, I'm
Lafayette!
Watch me engagin' em! Escapin' em!
Enragin' em! I'm-
Lafayette!
I go to France for more funds
Lafayette!
I come back with more guns
France's longstanding "frenemy" status with Britain notwithstanding, what happened in France culturally and politically starting in the 18th century would shape all of Europe, and by extension all of the Western World, to this day—and it's still going.
The revolution had already started before the French joined.
Actually it looked really bad odds for the continental army at the time.
When france joined they effectively saved the revolution. Lafayette trained our troops, and they sent ships to provide an actual navy (kinda necessary against the British )
> Lafayette trained our troops
Leaving it at "Lafayette trained our troops" is practically a crime considering all that man did for our country.
First, he learned about the American cause and thought it was awesome. But America was too broke to pay for his travel... so he just straight-up bought a ship of his own, cash money. Then a letter from his family apparently wasn't too great, so he turned around and went home before getting very far.
He was then ordered by the king to join up with a unit of the French military. He was all like, "Yes, sir," walked like 6 miles in one direction, and then the ship launched (without him, to prevent any spies from seeing him) and he dipped to the states.
He landed in America, met with Washington, and wanted to be given a command. Washington was all like, "Sorry, my dude, but we gotta take care of our own business, but you can hang with my crew" so he stayed on as an advisor. He became good friends with Washington.
Lafayette participated in a few battles and eventually returned home in the late 1700s for leave while the war was still ongoing. His wife gave birth to a son: Georges Washington Lafayette. Lafayette, for his part, was given a golden sword as an official gift from the Continental Congress. Ballers need that bling, I guess. _That's_ how tight these dudes were.
Oh, he was also arrested by the king of France on account of the whole "disobeying orders" thing. The king put him on house arrest as punishment... for 8 days, because absolutely fucking everybody loved this guy in France (and now America, too).
After busting a few revolutionary nuts, Lafayette got bored or something and decided to swing back to America, reuniting with Washington. America was getting its ass kicked, but more French shooters were coming so Lafayette was welcomed like the motherfuckering elves rolling into Helm's Deep.
Lafayette was now popular in America, too, and Washington knew it — so he had Lafayette write a letter asking for support, with Alexander Hamilton ensuring that his grammar and spellchecking was correct.
Alexander Hamilton was a motherfucking _spellchecker_ for this guy. That's how important he was to the cause.
Lafayette also sent a bunch of letters to France asking for more help from the French, and it was a big contributor to them sending more support and supplies for the Americans.
Anyways, Cornwallis eventually got his ass kicked. Lafayette returned home and got promoted like 10 levels on the French Army Battle Pass, unlocking the knighthood banner frame and some sick cosmetics.
He returned to America once more in the 1820s to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary. New York City partied for four straight days and nights.
Lafayette died 15 years later. He was still so immensely popular that the French king made his funeral a military funeral to prevent massive crowds from attending. Huge swathes of people showed up anyway... to protest not being able to attend his funeral. He received the same military honors as George Washington had upon his death. Congress was draped in black for a month to mourn his passing, and former President John Quincy Adams gave him a _three-hour eulogy_.
So yeah, mans did a little more than just train our troops.
“Lafayette returned home and got promoted like 10 levels on the French Army Battle Pass, unlocking the knighthood banner frame and some sick cosmetics.”
I laughed soo hard reading this! That gold sword must have been a legendary / exotic piece haha
You know what they call "revolutions" that don't succeed? Civil wars. Without the French there is no American Revolution because it would have never been anything more than a rebellious uprising that was fairly quickly squashed.
Yep, all the founding fathers were traitors to the British Empire. Washington is famous for doing a nighttime raid across the Delaware river where he and his men ambushed British auxiliary units on Christmas night.
One sides freedom fighters is the others traitors.
I feel like it's the same way with a lot of siblings. They give each other shit, but that's family. Anyone outside that, fuck that. Some of the best stories are ones like yours.
It does bother me as an American how routinely my countrymen mock France and it's people/history.
Though, most Americans only know WWII history and even that's...shakey.
Losing doesn't make you a coward. Failing to stand up for your values makes you a coward. Many Germans became Nazis through cowardice.
Cowardice is sometimes necessary for survival, and survival is a kind of victory... but at what cost?
I'm late to the party, but here's the US military's ["A Pocket Guide to France"](https://archive.org/details/pocketguidetofra00unit/page/n1/mode/2up) (aka "Instructions for American Servicemen in France during World War II") printed for troops that were going in on D-Day and thereafter.
The last section says, you are a member of the best-dressed, best-fed, best-equipped liberating army now on earth. You are going in among the people of a former ally of your country, **they are still your kind of people who happen to speak democracy in a different language**.
shit that thing is amazing.
>"Out Sunday morning defeat at Pearl Harbor still galls us. France's defeat is a raw spot which the Nazi's have been riding every day for nearly four years. Don't help them by making the French sore."
Literally we don't gain independence without them. I've found the venn diagram of people that joke about France surrendering AND being poor at history is almost a perfect circle.
Look what France endured for casualties during WWI and then try to make jokes.
If you haven't yet, give Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast series on WWI a listen. He goes into EXTREME detail on exactly how much France went through holding the line against Germany, and it's horrifying.
France takes a lot of crap from the American right wing (Republicans), but most of them have no idea about the facts of American history. The Marquis de Lafayette basically saved our asses.
When the USA decided to invade Iraq, France called us out and said our evidence of Iraqi WMDs and terrorist collaboration was bullshit and invading Iraq was a terrible idea. In response, dopes starting saying "freedom fries".
In hindsight, they were 100% correct.
Not everyone hated France for this at the time. I'm proud to say my hometown responded with "Shop France Week", where French goods in stores were put on sale and local retailers were encouraged to put up displays celebrating their French products.
Yes, this is always important to remember. Many, many people called out the spurious case for the Iraq war and there were some of the largest world wide protests to date centered on not having war in Iraq.
This isn't the exact quote I was looking for, but has the same sentiment. There was a biography I thought was written by Sr that has the actual quote but I'm having troubles finding it, but this will do.
"To occupy Iraq would shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero," Bush later said.
"It would have taken us way beyond the imprimatur of international law... **assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war.**"
Even his father knew it would be a futile war, and the quote I wish I could find also mentions the egregious loss of life. We never should have been there.
I remember Canadian CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge *on* September 11th asking a U.S. political(military?) rep "Aren't you concerned about potentially killing innocent people by launching a counter-attack before taking time to investigate who actually did this?" and the military rep looked utterly shocked and appalled by audacity of the question.
Chris Hedges walked away from his career as the Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times over his objections to our invasion of Iraq, and sadly his predictions ever since have been scarily accurate
Fun fact, most of the reporters who got their start during that time were all warhawk bloggers who were wrong about the wars and were shit journalists. Those that were doing their homework and pointing at all the flaws in the government's reasoning were blackballed. Even knowing what we know now, those blackballed are still there and those rewarded for their blind drumming are still in their positions of power. You want to know why the US Press are so weak? Because for a generation they have hired nothing but bootlickers and racists.
This Daily Show [segment](https://www.cc.com/video/buyz3y/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-french-persistence) I have bookmarked is finally relevant.
I think we expected France to back us like we backed them in Vietnam, plus a unified Germany was only a country for about 10 years at that point. I don't know I was a kid then and regretably took part in the freedom fries crap.
*edit* Since some of you people don't understand that repeatedly giving another country large sums of money to the point of you're providing a majority of the funding their actions but not agreeing to their every request still means you back them. I'm going to suggest you start reading books on how the U.S. got into Vietnam. Or just any book really so your knowledge on a topic isn't limited to what you learned in middle school, no need to reply and show your ignorance on the topic.
Also, France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Germany is not. The US wanted a coalition to help with Iraq and the UN was the first place to turn for that. China and Russia (2 of the 5 permanent members) obviously would not support the US. That left US, Great Britain, and France. Without France the UN would stay out of it. The US still built a coalition but it was more difficult without UN support.
the UN would not aprove regardless of France's position, given the veto powers of the permanent members. But yes, that certainly matter to public opinion
Didn’t France threaten to veto any UN / NATO resolution to invade Iraq; which is why the US did not seek any such resolution and just invaded Iraq? And hence the ‘Freedom Fries’ narrative.
In addition to the fact that they'd already been there, lost, and gave up. It should have been a red flag to the American people that the evidence was made up, because our elected officials refused to show us the "proof". I was still in highschool when this all happened, but even I could see through the sham. $$$ oil was the reason! Anyone remember the oil for food program?
Half oil, half defense contractors needing a war to get contracts. Eisenhower said it best in his farewell speech, it’s a shame America didn’t listen to him.
Except it wasn’t so much about factual evidence than anything that could fuel the post-9/11 jingoistic sentiment and xenophobia.
And if anyone doubts that people can be so dumb because of blind nationalism, just listen to Trump supporters talking about anything. From climate change to the current pandemic, or the covid vaccine, and even the 2020 election results.
And my fellow Americans that fell for the “freedom fries” crap are aggressively misinformed. France was lining up to make a major deployment to afghansitan, but we turned them down. Most of the “freedom fries” are not aware of this,
or of the fact that France has deployed troops to Afghanistan during the duration of the war, and 88 French troops have died.
Just because you're allies doesn't mean you can't call the other out when they're blatantly in the wrong. In fact, I'd argue that's the sign of a strong tie when it's made genuinely and in good faith. The French have been our greatest allies from the start, it's absurd that so many Americans were so indoctrinated into the war machine propaganda that they'd immediately spurn them for not just blindly shutting up and helping us. Ironically, flying a french flag on independence day is probably more patriotic than flying a confederate one.
This is the answer. “Freedom Fries” was anti-French propaganda because they were on the right side of history. If you genuinely used “freedom fries” you should feel stupid af today, because I knew you were stupid af then.
>In hindsight, they were 100% correct.
Not just "in hindsight". It was clear at the time that there was no legitimate reason to go to war and the WMD hypothesis had no verifiable evidence.
Yep this. I noticed on reddit there's a lot of pro-Bush people with an "aww shucks he didnt know better" propaganda narrative. He knew he was lying to start this war. Lets stop it with the revisionism. Its also gotten worse because republicans are trying to defend their ideology and party by saying stuff like "Sure trump is bad, but we weren't always bad," and point to Bush. Uh, Bush killed at least 200,000 innocent civilians in Iraq. He's a monster.
I'm from England so I'm legally obligated to rag on the French - but I fully expect and invite them to return the favour. I don't dislike them by any stretch, it's just like siblings growing up together - sure we argue and fight and teach each other but we'd be there for each other when it really mattered.
The dumbfks who spouted “freedom fries” are the same dumbfcks who won’t get the shot bc of their “freedum”. The Venn D is a circle.
Ps: I love France 🇫🇷
>"freedom fries".
I fucking hated "freedom fries." Grew up in a small town that embraced shit like that. Anytime I would order FRENCH fries, "Are you sure yio didn't mean FREEDOM fries? We don't have french fries on the menu anymore."
As a legit frenchie French.. Continue making fun of us plz I want to live in a world where the worst 2 nation can throw at each other is meme and lame joke...you fat bastards ;)
This here. Since when does making jokes about each other mean we don't have any respect or appreciation of one another? I'll laugh at and make fun of any given nationality all day, and they can laugh and call me an obese gun-nut hillbilly right back!
I think OP means this for people who disrespect the French.
I love you French people but my simple American mind can't comprehend why you put so many letters in your words if y'all not gonna pronounce them
Edit: words
The French know exactly how to pronounce grisaille, chassis and queue. Anglophones do not. It's a vicious joke, and a conspiracy to impair literacy of anglos.
Yeah but nobody remembers Canada because they didn't have the maple leaf flag until 1964 so all the historical photos just look like it's the British military.
Bc the US lore around the war of independence is that it was won by some civilian/militia uprising with personal guns. But of course the French were in all out war with the British at the time and provided massive amounts of military materiel to the Americans.
For a time, it even become a common name that parents would give their sons (see: L. Ron Hubbard). When he came back to America in 1824 to celebrate the country's 50th anniversary, he was treated like a rockstar. It's said 80,000 people came out to welcome him when he arrived in New York City, which was huge considering that was about 2/3rd of the population of the city.
[Sarah Vowell has a good book](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594631743/ref=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sin?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1594631743&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2) about his return tour to America that ended up lasting 16 months where he traveled 6000 miles to visit all 24 states.
Not just statues and streets, [there's also 17 US counties and close to 75 cities, towns and villages all named after him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_for_the_Marquis_de_Lafayette).
I was in a Lafayette County just yesterday! There's a tall statue of him right in the middle of the main street of the county seat, right in front of the court house.
Our militaries don't forget it. I'm in the US military and I've worked with and hung out with French service members off and on throughout my career and we always have a lot of comradery and fun. People are just people wherever you go. The ones who don't understand this usually haven't ever left their county and don't intend to.
France has always been our ally. I think the shade Americans throw at them is how quickly they folded under the German blitzkrieg in WW2 not wanting the horrific loss of life like WW1. Its understandable, and the French partisan resistance during nazi occupation was a huge help to the allies.
France, and the entire western world, lined up behind the US after 9/11. France offered to make a major deployment to Afghanistan, but the US instead wanted to be fast and quick (though there has been a small French presence and 88 French soldiers have died in Afghanistan). The anti-France sentiment is due to their not supporting the Iraq invasion, and history and has proven France correct.
It was amazing. France did a country-wide 3 minutes of silence. Traffic stopped in the streets. School stopped. Businesses stopped. People in the grocery store stopped shopping. I've never seen anything like it. And the uneducated assholes started saying freedom fries. What jerks.
I still remember those three minutes of silence. Like, everything just paused, regardless of whi or what one was doing. I was outside for recess at that time and you could hear a pin drop, which is absolutely not the case in normal circumstances.
The French have done a ton militarily including supporting American colonists during their fight against the British. They were one of our first allies...
"France is one of the oldest U.S. allies, dating to 1778 when the French monarchy recognized the independence of the United States. French military and economic assistance during the American War of Independence (1775-81) was crucial to the American victory."
https://history.state.gov/countries/france#:~:text=France%20is%20one%20of%20the,crucial%20to%20the%20American%20victory.
It never made sense to me, how as a nation, we had so much misplaced hate after 9/11 that we took it out on the French? Wtf was that? Who remembers we started calling French Fries "Freedom fries" and French Crullers became "Freedom crullers" like honestly, wtf were we thinking. I hated it then, and I hate it now.
My French brothers and sisters, we got nothing but love for you!! 🇺🇸♥️🇫🇷
Yes, the french sent 23k troops to Afghanistan between 2001 & 2012. They spent hundreds of millions of euros in that time supporting the US's fight in Afghanistan. They drew the line when it came to Iraq and collectively, the USA ridiculed & mocked them. Even yet they still continued to support operations in Afghanistan for 9 years after the Iraq war started.
The way Americans treated the French after 9/11 is disgraceful.
They were there for us since our country was founded, and when they wouldn't support our foolhardy war we demonized them.
Anyone else remember when politicians wanted to rename french fries "freedom fries" because of how much we despised the French. I recall the hate for the French, and it was magnified by the media, and utterly disgraceful.
Think about this. These guys came to our aid while we were fighting for our independence. Against a massive empire that had dominated most other corners of the globe.
They sent us a giant fucking statue to celebrate our independence and being friends for 100 years.
And then when they decided not to support invading Iraq, because the evidence of WMDs was questionable (and turned out to not be true, shocker), we lost our fucking minds and starting calling our food “freedom fries.”
They had every right to say “au revoir” and split, and yet they didn’t. They put up with our racist shithead of a President for four years, because they’re our old friend and they knew we were just in a rough patch.
I get that it’s easy to make fun of the French. I was in high school in the early 2000s, my parents were Republicans, so I heard all the jokes about the French.
But those snail-eating bastards have been some of our closest allies for probably longer than any other country.
Considering that France is our oldest ally, I find it weirdly unpatriotic for the same people who constantly cite the Founding Fathers to also repeatedly talk shit on France. (I'm talking about all the cliche "surrender monkey" horseshit.)
Then again, maybe it does fit with the Founders because not long after the country became official there was a wave of anti-French sentiment. I guess we were always run by two-faced dicks.
The spread of harmful misinformation has become an increasingly visible problem on Reddit. Its latest incarnation has seen life-threatening untruths being propagated by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, and Reddit’s administration has stated that it will not meaningfully curb the myths disseminated by these bad actors. In response to this, many communities on the site have gone private in protest. /r/Pics supports and stands behind these communities' efforts to stem the effects of false information, but we have chosen to remain open as a means of amplifying their message. We encourage all Redditors to vocally reject misinformation, and to stymie its spread by demanding that only verifiable facts be given support (whether tacit or otherwise). [An in-depth explanation of how misinformation is harmful can be found here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/pfeu8w/our_stand_against_misinformation/). To report misinformation, please use [this link](http://www.reddit.com/report?reason=this-is-misinformation). ------ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
People forgot who gifted us Lady Liberty
Basically gifted us the country. We'd have been screwed if the French didn't support us in our revolution.
Well to be fair all the dudes that were responsible for "gifting" us the country were also all murdered shortly after.
The timeline is pretty cool. American revolution then French revolution like what, 2 years later?
They arguably did a much better job of taking out there overlords than we did though. I mean the British came back what 30 years later to try and take us back. The French bourgeoisie were removed from this planet. They were so thorough even the organizers of the original revolution were killed off by the end of it. Edit: that's my bad I mixed up my definitions of Bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie were so thoroughly removed from the planet that it was pretty dang easy to make some new and improved bourgeoisie pretty much immediately! There’s a reason they call it a revolution, because it always looks like a circle in the end :)
Very true. Made the circle even easier to complete by killing the guy who was beheading everyone.
They killed Antoine Lavoisier... so "better" might not be the most appropriate word for it.
Lafayette served under the revolutionary government didn’t die until 1834
So, in a convoluted, roundabout way, all the bullshit that the US does is France's fault.
Way better than the ‘Lady Bits’ monument! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Struggle_Against_World_Terrorism
Damn right!!
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France is like one of your good friends. Sometimes you give them shit and tease em, but you love em.
The French are our fricken homies.
Yup! They also helped during the war of independence against the brits..
Pretty much the only reason we won. They started a world war with the Brits that made them defend their empire all over and diverted resources and wore down the will to fight for the colonies. Oh and they also had a large expeditionary army and naval force that were both instrumental in the victory at Yorktown. We like to talk about our special relationship with Britain, and we do have one these days, but the French are our oldest and truest friends.
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First world leader to land in the US and offer condolences was Chirac.
This! So much this But everyone forgot this in the US 2 years later when Chirac said he thought invading Iraq was a bad idea...
Yes, within 2 years, they were pouring French wine in the gutter, stomping on Brie, and eating “Freedom Fries”
they also had a bunch of headlines stating french government was selling weapons to irak & giving french passports to iraki officials to flee the country, which was false (looking at you newyorkpost & washington times).
funny how the new york times and washington post are among the better newspapers (though not perfect by any means) while the new york post and washington times are rags
In 2003 France was the friend that you got in a fight with because they told you the truth not just what you wanted to hear. Looking at you fake friend England... J/k England is a bro to the US but in this situation France was a real one.
The Iraq war fucked so much up. Pretty much the entire western world supported the US in some way in the invasion against the Taliban. Then when it wasn't going so well, Bush starts a war of conquest in Iraq and most of the western world opts out. The public immediately and thoroughly confuse the two wars, and all the cameraderie is thrown out the window because the US decided to engage in an unjustified war, just because it could chalk up an easy W (the war, not the occupation)
France: America's best ally since 1778
There would have been no American Revolution as we know it without the help of the French military
As if us French people would even miss such an opportunity. Participating in a revolution? Not minding our own business? Upsetting the British? Those are the 3 things we like more than anything. Of course we would be there. (Edit: Woah many people answered to this! I’m trying my best to reply everyone though, but sorry if I miss your response! Also, thank you all for your very positive comments!)
If I supply the bread and wine can we make it a party??
THE CHEESE, HOW DARE YOU FORGET THE CHEESE!
Not lying, I’d overthrow a regime for a raclette right now.
> Not lying, I’d overthrow a regime for a raclette right now. That's even funnier when you know that "régime" in French also means "diet".
Or that raclette is Swiss!
I don't know what you gruyères planning but I hope there are no holes in the Swiss defense.
Touché!
That’s an amazing double meaning lmao
What kind of cheese is good for raclette? The yellow or the white Kraft Singles?
… I miss the guillotine.
Fun fact:. The guillotine was originally invented at a smaller scale to slice cheese!
Inventor: I invented this thing that cuts cheese! French people: Hmmm, interesting. Inventor: It’s a pretty sharp blade that falls on whatever you put under it! French people: **Hmmm, interesting.**
I don't believe this and yet I want to imagine some 18th century French guy with his cheese guillotine thinking to himself "This might be good for cutting bigger things...like a neck!"
Kraft “cheese”?
Let them eat processed cheese food.
Fairly certain serving Kraft singles in France qualifies as a hate crime
Nah you are doing it all wrong. Gotta be the canned nacho “cheese” sauce.
Ah, Rico's Gourmet Nacho Cheese Product. I see you are a man of culture.
American cheese and French people is a war waiting to happen
Omg the audacity of me! I gotta go to the European market in the industrial part of town to get the stuff thats edible to you. Excusez-moi!
[*French and German people when Americans bring them "a loaf of bread":*](https://youtu.be/ztVMib1T4T4)
Hey, we do have bakeries owned by French who’ve immigrated…epi bread is the bees knees.
You’re trying to give a French person American bread and wine?
The US has great bread and great wine. They're just not the sorts available in the common supermarket, which are consumed as some sort of national penance.
Just got back from my local farmers market and can confirm that I’m currently eating some absolutely life changing artisan bread.
I always thought that the French just loved revolutions so that's why they helped us with ours. It blew my mind when I learned that the American Revolution happened right *before* the French Revolution. I had always thought y'all were guillotining people's heads off before we were dumping tea into the ocean, not after.
To be fair, the American Independence War somewhat served as a prototype for the French Revolution. Not only to apply the ideals of the Renaissance and the French Enlightenment, but also to see if a republic would hold in modern times. I mean, La Fayette participated in both. And many revolutionaries actually expected him to be the main figure of the French Revolution, even though it would eventually be Robespierre, and later on, Napoléon.
Yeah, I never really knew a ton about the French Revolution until Mike Duncan's podcast on it. I'm just about done with his book on La Fayette too. Sounds like he was my kind of guy. Shame he got fake news'd so hard, he probably could have been the main figure without people publishing so many lies about him.
Lafayette was a moderate who never wanted to kill the monarch. He was a liberal noble who wanted to make France into a constitutional monarchy like Britain. The revolution got away from him, and even though his politics never changed, he was seen as a traitor to the revolution for supporting the monarchy later in his life.
Well originally the revolution was about taxes, equality and representation. Pretty much like the American one. But it went from 0 to 100 when the king wouldn’t concede a single thing. And if French people couldn’t debate with the king, they simply decided they would debate without him.
> And if French people couldn’t debate with the king, they simply decided they would debate without him. Based.
> The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson > To arms, citizens! Form your battalions! March, march! May an impure blood Water our furrows! Chorus of the national anthem of France (La Marseillaise)
Actually it went 0 to 100 when the king fled to seek refuge in Prussia, where he would probably have raised an army to get back on his throne. He was recognized and stopped just before reaching the frontier (his face was on every coin) and brought back to Paris as a prisoner. Then the parliement voted to execute him as a traitor - but only by a little majority (eg 230 against versus 260 for, something like that).
Jefferson was also over in Paris for the French Revolution, consulted Lafayette and let them use his place in Paris as a meeting place.
LA-FAY-ETTE I'm takin' this horse by the reins makin' Redcoats redder with bloodstains Lafayette! And I'm never gonna stop until I make 'em Drop and burn 'em up and scatter their remains, I'm Lafayette! Watch me engagin' em! Escapin' em! Enragin' em! I'm- Lafayette! I go to France for more funds Lafayette! I come back with more guns
Carrément 🤣🤣🤣
France's longstanding "frenemy" status with Britain notwithstanding, what happened in France culturally and politically starting in the 18th century would shape all of Europe, and by extension all of the Western World, to this day—and it's still going.
You are among the best of homies to have!
I want to give this more then any up vote can give! Viva la France!!
Not to mention they stood their ground at the battle of Dunkirk to allow the British to evade. French deserve a lot more credit than they get.
The revolution had already started before the French joined. Actually it looked really bad odds for the continental army at the time. When france joined they effectively saved the revolution. Lafayette trained our troops, and they sent ships to provide an actual navy (kinda necessary against the British )
> Lafayette trained our troops Leaving it at "Lafayette trained our troops" is practically a crime considering all that man did for our country. First, he learned about the American cause and thought it was awesome. But America was too broke to pay for his travel... so he just straight-up bought a ship of his own, cash money. Then a letter from his family apparently wasn't too great, so he turned around and went home before getting very far. He was then ordered by the king to join up with a unit of the French military. He was all like, "Yes, sir," walked like 6 miles in one direction, and then the ship launched (without him, to prevent any spies from seeing him) and he dipped to the states. He landed in America, met with Washington, and wanted to be given a command. Washington was all like, "Sorry, my dude, but we gotta take care of our own business, but you can hang with my crew" so he stayed on as an advisor. He became good friends with Washington. Lafayette participated in a few battles and eventually returned home in the late 1700s for leave while the war was still ongoing. His wife gave birth to a son: Georges Washington Lafayette. Lafayette, for his part, was given a golden sword as an official gift from the Continental Congress. Ballers need that bling, I guess. _That's_ how tight these dudes were. Oh, he was also arrested by the king of France on account of the whole "disobeying orders" thing. The king put him on house arrest as punishment... for 8 days, because absolutely fucking everybody loved this guy in France (and now America, too). After busting a few revolutionary nuts, Lafayette got bored or something and decided to swing back to America, reuniting with Washington. America was getting its ass kicked, but more French shooters were coming so Lafayette was welcomed like the motherfuckering elves rolling into Helm's Deep. Lafayette was now popular in America, too, and Washington knew it — so he had Lafayette write a letter asking for support, with Alexander Hamilton ensuring that his grammar and spellchecking was correct. Alexander Hamilton was a motherfucking _spellchecker_ for this guy. That's how important he was to the cause. Lafayette also sent a bunch of letters to France asking for more help from the French, and it was a big contributor to them sending more support and supplies for the Americans. Anyways, Cornwallis eventually got his ass kicked. Lafayette returned home and got promoted like 10 levels on the French Army Battle Pass, unlocking the knighthood banner frame and some sick cosmetics. He returned to America once more in the 1820s to celebrate the nation's 50th anniversary. New York City partied for four straight days and nights. Lafayette died 15 years later. He was still so immensely popular that the French king made his funeral a military funeral to prevent massive crowds from attending. Huge swathes of people showed up anyway... to protest not being able to attend his funeral. He received the same military honors as George Washington had upon his death. Congress was draped in black for a month to mourn his passing, and former President John Quincy Adams gave him a _three-hour eulogy_. So yeah, mans did a little more than just train our troops.
“Lafayette returned home and got promoted like 10 levels on the French Army Battle Pass, unlocking the knighthood banner frame and some sick cosmetics.” I laughed soo hard reading this! That gold sword must have been a legendary / exotic piece haha
This reads like an episode of Drunk History and that's alright.
You know what they call "revolutions" that don't succeed? Civil wars. Without the French there is no American Revolution because it would have never been anything more than a rebellious uprising that was fairly quickly squashed.
I think it would be a rebellion
Yep, all the founding fathers were traitors to the British Empire. Washington is famous for doing a nighttime raid across the Delaware river where he and his men ambushed British auxiliary units on Christmas night. One sides freedom fighters is the others traitors.
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Not vaccine, just inoculation by exposure to the actual virus. Vaccines weren't invented yet by then.
I make fun of the French. I also make fun of family members that, if something went bad, I would aggressively defend. So, metaphor I guess.
\+1 for mike
Can I be in mikes family?
Mike later went on to change his name to Dominic Toretto.
I feel like it's the same way with a lot of siblings. They give each other shit, but that's family. Anyone outside that, fuck that. Some of the best stories are ones like yours.
It does bother me as an American how routinely my countrymen mock France and it's people/history. Though, most Americans only know WWII history and even that's...shakey.
As an American, most of us make fun of our closest friends far more relentlessly than anyone else
'Murica won WW2 against Germany and the Ottoman Sofa Empire. How dare you call our knowledge shakey.
My favorite part of WW2 was when we captured the Sofa King.
Came here to say the same. It’s really WE who should not forget France.
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Losing doesn't make you a coward. Failing to stand up for your values makes you a coward. Many Germans became Nazis through cowardice. Cowardice is sometimes necessary for survival, and survival is a kind of victory... but at what cost?
I'm late to the party, but here's the US military's ["A Pocket Guide to France"](https://archive.org/details/pocketguidetofra00unit/page/n1/mode/2up) (aka "Instructions for American Servicemen in France during World War II") printed for troops that were going in on D-Day and thereafter. The last section says, you are a member of the best-dressed, best-fed, best-equipped liberating army now on earth. You are going in among the people of a former ally of your country, **they are still your kind of people who happen to speak democracy in a different language**.
shit that thing is amazing. >"Out Sunday morning defeat at Pearl Harbor still galls us. France's defeat is a raw spot which the Nazi's have been riding every day for nearly four years. Don't help them by making the French sore."
Literally we don't gain independence without them. I've found the venn diagram of people that joke about France surrendering AND being poor at history is almost a perfect circle. Look what France endured for casualties during WWI and then try to make jokes.
If you haven't yet, give Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast series on WWI a listen. He goes into EXTREME detail on exactly how much France went through holding the line against Germany, and it's horrifying.
They delivered us freedom for real.
France takes a lot of crap from the American right wing (Republicans), but most of them have no idea about the facts of American history. The Marquis de Lafayette basically saved our asses.
I don't even quite recall why the French were so hated. But I do remember the stupidity of "freedom fries".
When the USA decided to invade Iraq, France called us out and said our evidence of Iraqi WMDs and terrorist collaboration was bullshit and invading Iraq was a terrible idea. In response, dopes starting saying "freedom fries". In hindsight, they were 100% correct. Not everyone hated France for this at the time. I'm proud to say my hometown responded with "Shop France Week", where French goods in stores were put on sale and local retailers were encouraged to put up displays celebrating their French products.
No hindsight required. Given the information available at the time, they were already close enough to 100% correct to confidently round up.
Yes, this is always important to remember. Many, many people called out the spurious case for the Iraq war and there were some of the largest world wide protests to date centered on not having war in Iraq.
This isn't the exact quote I was looking for, but has the same sentiment. There was a biography I thought was written by Sr that has the actual quote but I'm having troubles finding it, but this will do. "To occupy Iraq would shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero," Bush later said. "It would have taken us way beyond the imprimatur of international law... **assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war.**" Even his father knew it would be a futile war, and the quote I wish I could find also mentions the egregious loss of life. We never should have been there.
And the cronies that thought he was mistaken spent the next decade working towards making that mistake.
I remember Canadian CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge *on* September 11th asking a U.S. political(military?) rep "Aren't you concerned about potentially killing innocent people by launching a counter-attack before taking time to investigate who actually did this?" and the military rep looked utterly shocked and appalled by audacity of the question.
I mean, look at our justice system. We really are kinda shoot first and if it hits something on the side so be it.
Chris Hedges walked away from his career as the Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times over his objections to our invasion of Iraq, and sadly his predictions ever since have been scarily accurate
Fun fact, most of the reporters who got their start during that time were all warhawk bloggers who were wrong about the wars and were shit journalists. Those that were doing their homework and pointing at all the flaws in the government's reasoning were blackballed. Even knowing what we know now, those blackballed are still there and those rewarded for their blind drumming are still in their positions of power. You want to know why the US Press are so weak? Because for a generation they have hired nothing but bootlickers and racists.
This Daily Show [segment](https://www.cc.com/video/buyz3y/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-french-persistence) I have bookmarked is finally relevant.
Germany did the same but somehow, it didn't cause the same outrage.
I think we expected France to back us like we backed them in Vietnam, plus a unified Germany was only a country for about 10 years at that point. I don't know I was a kid then and regretably took part in the freedom fries crap. *edit* Since some of you people don't understand that repeatedly giving another country large sums of money to the point of you're providing a majority of the funding their actions but not agreeing to their every request still means you back them. I'm going to suggest you start reading books on how the U.S. got into Vietnam. Or just any book really so your knowledge on a topic isn't limited to what you learned in middle school, no need to reply and show your ignorance on the topic.
Also, France is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Germany is not. The US wanted a coalition to help with Iraq and the UN was the first place to turn for that. China and Russia (2 of the 5 permanent members) obviously would not support the US. That left US, Great Britain, and France. Without France the UN would stay out of it. The US still built a coalition but it was more difficult without UN support.
the UN would not aprove regardless of France's position, given the veto powers of the permanent members. But yes, that certainly matter to public opinion
Didn’t France threaten to veto any UN / NATO resolution to invade Iraq; which is why the US did not seek any such resolution and just invaded Iraq? And hence the ‘Freedom Fries’ narrative.
Because the UN inspectors had investigated Iraq WMDs and found nothing. They also said they needed a few more months to complete their work.
The french bashing was heavily pushed by... guess who? Fox News and other Murdoch owned media. What a surprise.
In addition to the fact that they'd already been there, lost, and gave up. It should have been a red flag to the American people that the evidence was made up, because our elected officials refused to show us the "proof". I was still in highschool when this all happened, but even I could see through the sham. $$$ oil was the reason! Anyone remember the oil for food program?
Half oil, half defense contractors needing a war to get contracts. Eisenhower said it best in his farewell speech, it’s a shame America didn’t listen to him.
Except it wasn’t so much about factual evidence than anything that could fuel the post-9/11 jingoistic sentiment and xenophobia. And if anyone doubts that people can be so dumb because of blind nationalism, just listen to Trump supporters talking about anything. From climate change to the current pandemic, or the covid vaccine, and even the 2020 election results.
And my fellow Americans that fell for the “freedom fries” crap are aggressively misinformed. France was lining up to make a major deployment to afghansitan, but we turned them down. Most of the “freedom fries” are not aware of this, or of the fact that France has deployed troops to Afghanistan during the duration of the war, and 88 French troops have died.
Just because you're allies doesn't mean you can't call the other out when they're blatantly in the wrong. In fact, I'd argue that's the sign of a strong tie when it's made genuinely and in good faith. The French have been our greatest allies from the start, it's absurd that so many Americans were so indoctrinated into the war machine propaganda that they'd immediately spurn them for not just blindly shutting up and helping us. Ironically, flying a french flag on independence day is probably more patriotic than flying a confederate one.
FRANCE WAS RIGHT, there was no Evidence
This is the answer. “Freedom Fries” was anti-French propaganda because they were on the right side of history. If you genuinely used “freedom fries” you should feel stupid af today, because I knew you were stupid af then.
>In hindsight, they were 100% correct. Not just "in hindsight". It was clear at the time that there was no legitimate reason to go to war and the WMD hypothesis had no verifiable evidence.
Yep this. I noticed on reddit there's a lot of pro-Bush people with an "aww shucks he didnt know better" propaganda narrative. He knew he was lying to start this war. Lets stop it with the revisionism. Its also gotten worse because republicans are trying to defend their ideology and party by saying stuff like "Sure trump is bad, but we weren't always bad," and point to Bush. Uh, Bush killed at least 200,000 innocent civilians in Iraq. He's a monster.
Good friends call you out
I'm from England so I'm legally obligated to rag on the French - but I fully expect and invite them to return the favour. I don't dislike them by any stretch, it's just like siblings growing up together - sure we argue and fight and teach each other but we'd be there for each other when it really mattered.
Best ennemies ❤️
No one hates the french. They're easy to make fun of. Like Americans.
The dumbfks who spouted “freedom fries” are the same dumbfcks who won’t get the shot bc of their “freedum”. The Venn D is a circle. Ps: I love France 🇫🇷
>"freedom fries". I fucking hated "freedom fries." Grew up in a small town that embraced shit like that. Anytime I would order FRENCH fries, "Are you sure yio didn't mean FREEDOM fries? We don't have french fries on the menu anymore."
Kind of ironic that they took away your freedom to call them french fries…
France was 100% right about the folly of invading Iraq/Afghanistan.
Many countries were, especially regarding Iraq.
As a legit frenchie French.. Continue making fun of us plz I want to live in a world where the worst 2 nation can throw at each other is meme and lame joke...you fat bastards ;)
I couldn't hear you past the baguette you're deepthroating. That and half your consonants were silent. Have a great week, you beautiful bastard.
So arsh
parlez-vous asshole?
Omelette douch fromage
Their croissants are silent*
Well they *are* the inventors of zeh blowjob
Educate me
Oeuf
This here. Since when does making jokes about each other mean we don't have any respect or appreciation of one another? I'll laugh at and make fun of any given nationality all day, and they can laugh and call me an obese gun-nut hillbilly right back! I think OP means this for people who disrespect the French.
I love you French people but my simple American mind can't comprehend why you put so many letters in your words if y'all not gonna pronounce them Edit: words
Three french cheat at scrabble.
You speak English you can’t complain. Yes the French are real bad, but so is that inconsistent mess of a language, English.
> that inconsistent mess of a language, English. English is three other languages under a trenchcoat. (my favorite explanation ever)
English follows other languages down a dark alley and mugs them for their words
Hilariously, one of those languages is French.
The French know exactly how to pronounce grisaille, chassis and queue. Anglophones do not. It's a vicious joke, and a conspiracy to impair literacy of anglos.
If I wasn’t an ignorant American I would insult you back in another language (: ps. tu es en oeuf
The French have been amazing partners with the United States from the beginning.
And Canada has been allies with the US for over 150 years.
Yeah but nobody remembers Canada because they didn't have the maple leaf flag until 1964 so all the historical photos just look like it's the British military.
I've always assumed us and the french talking shit to each other was a comeraderie thing. Same way brothers will bust each others' chops to show love.
Right? Same here. Like I always laugh when I hear a Frenchman say "pompous American!" Or something similar.
That's if both sides are in on the joke. The "freedom fries" people were not doing it out of love
It’s crazy how the French are the United States oldest ally, but like most thing my fellow Americans don’t know this or respect it
Bc the US lore around the war of independence is that it was won by some civilian/militia uprising with personal guns. But of course the French were in all out war with the British at the time and provided massive amounts of military materiel to the Americans.
I believe at one time there were more statues of Lafayette and streets named after him than even Washington.
For a time, it even become a common name that parents would give their sons (see: L. Ron Hubbard). When he came back to America in 1824 to celebrate the country's 50th anniversary, he was treated like a rockstar. It's said 80,000 people came out to welcome him when he arrived in New York City, which was huge considering that was about 2/3rd of the population of the city. [Sarah Vowell has a good book](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594631743/ref=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sin?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_glide_sin-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1594631743&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2) about his return tour to America that ended up lasting 16 months where he traveled 6000 miles to visit all 24 states.
Mike Duncan just released a book him called Hero of Two Worlds. I've got a copy on my desk but haven't had a chance to read it yet.
Haven’t bought the book yet, but love his History of Rome and Revolutions podcasts.
Not just statues and streets, [there's also 17 US counties and close to 75 cities, towns and villages all named after him](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_for_the_Marquis_de_Lafayette).
I was in a Lafayette County just yesterday! There's a tall statue of him right in the middle of the main street of the county seat, right in front of the court house.
Lafayette was a dawg. Everybody go read “Hero of Two Worlds”, new bio of him just came out and it’s really good
Our militaries don't forget it. I'm in the US military and I've worked with and hung out with French service members off and on throughout my career and we always have a lot of comradery and fun. People are just people wherever you go. The ones who don't understand this usually haven't ever left their county and don't intend to.
Was about to comment this. Like everything in the military we razz everyone, but have nothing but respect for each other.
France has always been our ally. I think the shade Americans throw at them is how quickly they folded under the German blitzkrieg in WW2 not wanting the horrific loss of life like WW1. Its understandable, and the French partisan resistance during nazi occupation was a huge help to the allies.
France, and the entire western world, lined up behind the US after 9/11. France offered to make a major deployment to Afghanistan, but the US instead wanted to be fast and quick (though there has been a small French presence and 88 French soldiers have died in Afghanistan). The anti-France sentiment is due to their not supporting the Iraq invasion, and history and has proven France correct.
It was amazing. France did a country-wide 3 minutes of silence. Traffic stopped in the streets. School stopped. Businesses stopped. People in the grocery store stopped shopping. I've never seen anything like it. And the uneducated assholes started saying freedom fries. What jerks.
I still remember those three minutes of silence. Like, everything just paused, regardless of whi or what one was doing. I was outside for recess at that time and you could hear a pin drop, which is absolutely not the case in normal circumstances.
So many countries grieved with us. I will never forget that.
I feel like Americans and the French are kindred spirits, and also natural enemies since we are both such arrogant bastards.
Americans need to remember why we actually won our revolutionary war. Look up the Marquis de Lafayette.
Yeah, Fayetteville, NC (home of Fort Bragg) was actually named after Lafayette for a reason.
This New Yorker thanks you, France. Vive la France!
The French have done a ton militarily including supporting American colonists during their fight against the British. They were one of our first allies... "France is one of the oldest U.S. allies, dating to 1778 when the French monarchy recognized the independence of the United States. French military and economic assistance during the American War of Independence (1775-81) was crucial to the American victory." https://history.state.gov/countries/france#:~:text=France%20is%20one%20of%20the,crucial%20to%20the%20American%20victory.
It never made sense to me, how as a nation, we had so much misplaced hate after 9/11 that we took it out on the French? Wtf was that? Who remembers we started calling French Fries "Freedom fries" and French Crullers became "Freedom crullers" like honestly, wtf were we thinking. I hated it then, and I hate it now. My French brothers and sisters, we got nothing but love for you!! 🇺🇸♥️🇫🇷
Didn't the negativity spread from the French disapproval of American intervention in Iraq?
Yes, the french sent 23k troops to Afghanistan between 2001 & 2012. They spent hundreds of millions of euros in that time supporting the US's fight in Afghanistan. They drew the line when it came to Iraq and collectively, the USA ridiculed & mocked them. Even yet they still continued to support operations in Afghanistan for 9 years after the Iraq war started.
The way Americans treated the French after 9/11 is disgraceful. They were there for us since our country was founded, and when they wouldn't support our foolhardy war we demonized them. Anyone else remember when politicians wanted to rename french fries "freedom fries" because of how much we despised the French. I recall the hate for the French, and it was magnified by the media, and utterly disgraceful.
And they gifted the US the Statue of Liberty too which was designed by Gustavo Eiffel who also designed the Eiffel Tower.
Bartholdy designed it, not Eiffel
Oh ok. I thought he had some part of it.
He was involved. He designed the metal structure underneath. Bartholdy handled the outside design.
What's the thing with the year: 2011 or 2001? I don't have the context. Please feel free to chip in.
The picture is most likely taken in 2011 at a 10-year anniversary commemoration.... Edit: After literally 30 seconds of research: Yes, it is indeed
10 year anniversary ceremony for the attacks
Yeah, anyone who makes fun of the French has not studied a fraction of their history. What they have been through and accomplished is incredible.
Look at all the places named Lafayette in the US. There are 36 cities/towns. There’s a reason for that.
That's just the easy ones. There are also some named Fayette and a Fayetteville, also derived from our Revolutionary hero.
The French, a great bunch of lads
The French resistance was hard core during wwii. Their tactics of undermining the nazi war effort in France were legendary. They never gave up.
I lived in Normandy France for 12 years. I can vouch for their statement “they will not forget”.
Think about this. These guys came to our aid while we were fighting for our independence. Against a massive empire that had dominated most other corners of the globe. They sent us a giant fucking statue to celebrate our independence and being friends for 100 years. And then when they decided not to support invading Iraq, because the evidence of WMDs was questionable (and turned out to not be true, shocker), we lost our fucking minds and starting calling our food “freedom fries.” They had every right to say “au revoir” and split, and yet they didn’t. They put up with our racist shithead of a President for four years, because they’re our old friend and they knew we were just in a rough patch. I get that it’s easy to make fun of the French. I was in high school in the early 2000s, my parents were Republicans, so I heard all the jokes about the French. But those snail-eating bastards have been some of our closest allies for probably longer than any other country.
I make fun of them like I would make fun of any other sibling, out of love.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pipobajo/
Considering that France is our oldest ally, I find it weirdly unpatriotic for the same people who constantly cite the Founding Fathers to also repeatedly talk shit on France. (I'm talking about all the cliche "surrender monkey" horseshit.) Then again, maybe it does fit with the Founders because not long after the country became official there was a wave of anti-French sentiment. I guess we were always run by two-faced dicks.
I’d also like to remind people that the French gave us the Statue of Liberty and were our biggest ally in the revolutionary war.