I was in the Navy as part of the Intelligence community (not a bigwig, just a gopher) for 8 years (could tell you what I did, but then I would have to shoot you) from 1974 through 1982...
During that time, our threat assessment of the most dangerous countries out there was the Soviet Union as Number 1 and France as Number 2...
The Soviet Union is gone, so I assume that France is now the number 1 country that we keep tabs on...
Back then, the reasoning given to me was France was number 2 because; They had Nukes and you never knew who's side they were going to align with....
Later, after I got out of the Nav and was working in the civilian world, an accountant friend told me that France's hatred for the U.S. was because at the end of WWII in Europe, Eisenhower was supposed to wait and allow DeGaulle to enter Paris first, therefore being the hero... Eisenhower did not wait and entered Paris first, therefore becoming the liberator of Paris and leaving DeGaulle looking like a pissant... And it has been held against the U.S. since....
Personally, I don't know if that was true or not... I myself take France's "on again off again" relationship with us back to the revolutionary war... We probably would not have won the war without the help from Lafayette and the French, and they fully expected to be cut in on the goodies at the end of the war.. But, the U.S. effectively cut them out of the negotiations with the British and they ended up with Squat........
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