Posted on 05/01/2003 5:47:59 PM PDT by MadIvan
The big chill freezing relations between the US and France has reached America's most Gallic city, New Orleans, otherwise known as the Big Easy.
A statue of Joan of Arc gazes at the Mississippi and the French Quarter is still festooned with tricolours and fleur de lys flags but the malaise afflicting the two nations has even spread to the bicentennial celebration of their common past.
A lavish exhibition marking one of the most important events in their joint history, the Louisiana Purchase, is drawing large crowds but its organisers at one stage feared that bad feeling over Iraq would scupper the project.
Laura Bush, the president's wife and honorary head of the organising committee, stayed away from the opening gala and her greeting to visitors to the museum hosting the show is remarkable for its nuanced language.
The exhibition "offers great insights into the founding of our nation, the nature of leadership and the rich artistic dealings between America and France," the First Lady says, tactfully omitting any mention of France as the US's oldest ally.
"Jefferson's America and Napoleon's France" at the New Orleans Museum of Art commemorates the 200th anniversary of what is arguably the most lucrative real estate bargain in history, at least for the buyer. The infant American republic doubled its size thanks to the deal with France's then First Consul, snapping up the territory from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains for the knockdown price of four cents an acre
French copies of the purchase documents are some of the exhibition's highlights. But its organisers were afraid that these, and other French treasures, might not show up, victims of this spring's war of words between Washington and Paris over the Middle East.
To everyone's relief, all the promised items turned up, a victory hailed by some as proof of the two countries' enduring cultural ties overcoming petty political differences.
In fact, the show only underlines the historical contrast between the two nations, despite Marquis de Lafayette helping the colonies to win the American Revolution and the gift of the Statue of Liberty.
A sumptuous gilded throne used by Bonaparte stands beside an austere, high-backed leather armchair belonging to Jefferson, admittedly the most passionate Francophile of all US presidents. Among the ironies highlighted by the show was France's then status as the world's most powerful nation on land, one which celebrated a "cult of war" and far removed from the image of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" coined by The Simpsons.
In another piquant parallel, Napoleon and his armies had just returned from a victorious military expedition to the Orient, to Egypt.
"After seeing all that, I understand that we have much less in common than I thought," said one visitor to the show, Cookie Sampson. "Napoleon must have been quite an egomaniac."
Another irony of the Louisiana Purchase was that the Creoles of New Orleans, the only sizeable town in the wilderness sold by the transaction, were decidedly ambivalent about the deal.
This week's 200th anniversary of the treaty's drafting was marked with a Mass in the cathedral but the real action was in the streets where the city held a traditional New Orleans funeral for the R&B guitarist, Earl King.
Despite its veneer of French influence, New Orleans seems to be part of the US mainstream in its attitude to the country itself.
Another local venue which celebrates a significant chapter in US-French history is the National D-Day Museum. New Orleans was the home of the Higgins boats which landed Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. On the pavement outside, anti-French feeling was running predictably high.
"I have no use for them now," said Joe Thurman. "We protected their butt back then and now they fight against us tooth and toenail. And when we make a success of it in Iraq, now they want a piece of the action."
"Maybe they have something to offer with their food and wine but it's their principles - if they have any - and their leaders I can't stand."
Matters not. Whether our liberation of France was incidental or not, the fact remains that we saved their behinds from the Nazi occupation and it took them just a few years to forget that. As to the French being mature, well, nations are judged by the actions of their leaders. The British Prime Minister was mature; the French PM was not. He pandered (that's a word indicating immaturity) to the whims of his leftist populace, while the British PM ignored a firstorm of criticism from his own leftists, and did the right thing.
"What does France "owe" us? Nothing. They owe us nothing, zilch, zero, nada. Gratitude is a dog's disease from which nations never suffer in dealing with others. No nation- including this one- will ever operate it's foreign policy on past alliances or percieved debts."
Yes, we got nada, but we deserved more. And plenty of nations have operated their foreign policy on past alliances. The British entered WWII based on an alliance with Poland, and WWI erupted when nation after nation fell in like dominoes according to their particular alliances. Britain entered this present war based on an alliance with the US, as did Australia. If you aren't buying any of this I would suggest that you go to the history books and read about the causes of any given war. Time after time wars occur because of one country's alliance with another.
"Lafayette, we are here." It was allegedly uttered by one of Pershing's subordinates when the doughboys arrived in France during WWI. The phrase alludes to the US returning a favor to France for honoring an alliance with the Colonists during the American Revolution. WE REMEMBERED WHAT WE OWED AFTER 135 YEARS HAD PASSED.
It has been 58 years since we liberated France. The French owed us. But they screwed us.
And you are correct on one point; no nation should feel indebted to another in perpetuity. However, as I pointed out, we remembered a debt we owed France for 135 years, over three lifetimes by the life-expectancy standards of that period, but they can't find it in themselves to be grateful for the WWII French liberation of 1945, less than one lifetime.
I can see where you're coming from; standards of international politics and loyalty are much different in this day, the world is a much more fast-paced place, and most importantly, modern governments are much less entrenched than the monarchies and oligarchies of old. Governments and government men come and go much more quickly than they used to. Today it's the classic case of What-Have-You-Done-For-Me-Lately? That said, I still believe France owes us and they should have supported us in this war. Because once again we are fighting to safeguard French society as well as American society. When a dirty suitcase goes off in Paris they'll be asking why someone didn't do anything to prevent it.
We ressurected Lafayette during WWI, not to compliment the French, but to persuade an Isolationist population to go into a war that really didn't involve us. Don't blame the French that we bought that hooey- they had nothing to do with it.
Nations act in their interests- period. Don't confuse propaganda with truth.
That's what I learned in school. Considering the French sold out the other French Canadians after some war, though (and sold Louisiana to America!), I doubt the people there are big fans of the French.
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