Cultural differences between the French and Americans have made themselves felt more than once in the past. Both sides often accuse each other of arrogance. But today anti-French sentiment is taking a more serious turn in America.
The New York Post ran a front-page photograph showing the French and German representatives to the UN. However, their heads were replaced with the head of a fluffy weasel, which Americans associate with treachery and cowardice. And pop music radio hosts in Atlanta gave their listeners the opportunity to smash a French Peugeot car with a sledgehammer.
Evening talk show hosts almost every evening crack jokes about the French, like this one: "Going to war without the French is like going hunting without an accordion." Missouri congressman Roy Blunt began a recent Republican gathering with the question: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris from enemies?" After a pause, Blunt said the answer was unknown, because that had never happened in history...
Two Republican congressmen persuaded their colleagues to change the name of French fries in the House cafeteria menu from "French fries" to "freedom fries." The French hotel company Sofitel replaced the French flag at the entrance to its branches in ten U.S. cities with either the American national flag or the city flag.
Bill O'Reilly, host of a popular political talk show, urged his viewers to boycott French goods. One of those who responded to the call was Ken Wagner, a restaurant owner in West Palm Beach, who dragged all the French liquor he had out into the street and poured the contents of the bottles down the drain, saying: "So, have the French forgotten what happened in Normandy during World War II and in the Argonne Forest during World War I? Have they forgotten our Marshall Plan, which helped Europe revive?" In Ken Wagner's opinion, the French imagine themselves to be world leaders: "They are allowed everything: to fight in Algeria, to fight in Vietnam... They don't like it if something is done not on their initiative and without their permission."
At a store selling French furniture and wines in the city of Bellevue, business went from bad to worse after O'Reilly's call: sales volume halved. "Everyone who can be bothered is criticizing the French," complains the store owner, Molly Marking. "But we are not at war with France! This is some kind of perverse patriotism. We have freedom of speech, and it should extend to our allies. Maybe we should also ban Americans from approaching the Statue of Liberty because it was given to us by the French? Or replace 40% of the words in our language because they were taken from French?"
A New York resident, Shenny Peer, a former teacher and specialist in French culture, works at the Society for Franco-American Friendship. In her opinion, France has always been attacked by those who lacked the patience to use diplomacy. America, she believes, needs friends who honestly say what they think, and does not need those who are always ready to agree with all its ideas. "Personally, I believe the Bush administration is behaving recklessly on the international stage," says Shenny Peer. "As a result, the fate of the Western alliance and the role of the UN have been called into question. It is not only about American-French relations, but also about the U.S. position on international issues. I hope that Franco-American friendship will not be irreparably damaged."
Joseph Montville, a fellow at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies, notes that Americans are loudly indignant at French President Jacques Chirac – a man who once lived in Boston and studied at Harvard University. "France knew that it was not in a position to stop the war in Iraq," he says, "but it wanted to become the voice of those who warn the American administration against unilateral actions." Montville does not think that Francophobia will take deep root in American society.
French newspapers and political commentators have also added their venomous note to the American-French dispute. They compared the U.S. decision to send troops to Iraq with Hitler's assurances that the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland was merely a preventive measure. In Paris, jokes about American cowboys are heard every now and then, and there are perhaps no fewer of them than American quips about "frog-eating Frenchmen." And yet, in a recent interview with British television, Jacques Chirac expressed confidence that in the long term, good relations between America and France would not suffer...
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