Introduction

Author(s):  
Robert L. Fuller

Despite the mutual hostility of General Charles de Gaulle and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, France and the United States needed to cooperate to win the war against Germany. The French needed the help of the Americans more than the Americans needed the French; nevertheless, good working relations between the two were obviously in the best interests of both. Fortunately, US Army officers and French officials proved to be ready and willing to work closely and amicably together. Even so, certain areas of disagreement and friction appeared repeatedly in French and American official reports, memos, and correspondence. GI indiscipline ranked high on the list of issues on which the French urged immediate action. This work examines those issues as discrete subjects.

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
AURÉLIE ÉLISA GFELLER

AbstractCharles de Gaulle has cast a long shadow over French political history and history writing. In exploring the French response to the United States' 1973 ‘Year of Europe’ initiative, this article challenges the dominant scholarly paradigm, which emphasises continuity between the 1960s and the 1970s. Drawing on a wide range of French and US archives, it demonstrates that renewed concerns about US power spurred the French elites both to reappraise the value of collective European action in foreign policy and to foster a pioneering concept: a politically anchored – as opposed to a geographically circumscribed – ‘European identity’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 310-320
Author(s):  
José Maurício Álvarez

Abstract The familiar face of empires is external intervention as opposed to local culture. We follow Michel Onfray's thesis about the oracular illusion when one more individual or country tries to avoid the fulfillment of a nefarious prediction, which materializes as a catastrophe. Algeria conquered in 1830 was incorporated into French territory. In 1954 the FLN rebelled, and in 1961, General Charles de Gaulle negotiated the independence of Algeria, causing the disastrous departure of 750,000 French settlers and the death of French supporters. From 1962 to 2021, the withdrawals of imperial powers from their colonies,  France from Algeria, the United States in Afghanistan, resulted in catastrophes and uncertainties. The imperial power of the United States aimed to defeat its bipolar antagonist, the USSR when it invaded Afghanistan. They conducted an inconsequential policy to beat their rival, arming and financing the Taliban's victorious resistance, the freedom fighters. The oracular illusion led the United States to support the future antagonist, Islamic fundamentalism, destined for the world caliphate. After the departure of the USSR, American power despised the Taliban, who harbored al Qaeda, leading to 9/11. In 2001 the United States invaded Afghanistan and abandoned it after 20 years of war without the precaution of obtaining plans or safeguards for the government in Kabul. After the disastrous retreat, the victorious Taliban demonstrated, like the FLN in Algeria, the fulfillment of the oracular illusion.


2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey G. Giauque

Between 1958 and 1963 Charles de Gaulle attempted to replace supranational integration in Europe with a French-dominated confederation able to become a ‘Third Force’ in the Cold War. The United States took a tolerant approach toward de Gaulle's proposals, in the hope of modifying them to suit American goals. It hoped to contain the anti-supranational and anti-American aspects of the plan and channel it to increase the cohesion of Western Europe so that the continent would become a stronger American partner. When European supporters of the Amercian view of the confederation refused to follow de Gaulle's more sweeping ambitions, he abandoned the plan and turned to a unilateral foreign policy instead.


Author(s):  
D.B. Izyumov ◽  
E.L. Kondratyuk

The article discusses issues related to the development and use of training means and facilities in order to improve the level of training of US Army personnel. An overview of the main simulators used in the US Armed Forces at present is given, and the prospects for the development of the United States in this area are presented.


2020 ◽  
pp. 39-68
Author(s):  
Brian Taylor

This chapter looks at the first two years of the Civil War, when black men were barred from serving in the US Army. It follows the debate that black Northerners conducted about the proper response to the call to serve in the US military, which they were sure would come at some point. Immediate enlistment advocates sparred with those who counseled withholding enlistment until African Americans’ demands had been met. Black Northerners began to articulate the terms under which they would serve the Union, among which citizenship emerged as central, as well as the changes necessary to bring lived reality in the United States in line with the founding principle of equality.


Author(s):  
Jon B. Mikolashek

Patton’s wound is slow to heal; during this time, however, Patton is promoted to colonel. Discharged from the hospital, Patton returns to duty as the war ends. He hopes for the Medal of Honor but is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. With the war over, Patton spends the rest of his time overseas maintaining discipline, giving lectures on armored warfare and the future of tanks, and preparing for his return to the United States and his family. Patton prepares himself also for the fight to keep tanks in an independent Tank Corps as a vital weapons system for the US Army.


Worldview ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
Lionel Gelber

When the United States fostered the recovery and underwrote the security of Western Europe she had more than sentiment to impel her. That salient zone is a pivotal sector of the world balance, and while she may station fewer of her own troops upon its soil, she can entertain no total disengagement from it. But there is another West European item, the future of the Common Market, which calls for a fresh American scrutiny. The West will be better off if Western Europe acquires more of an ability to stand on its own feet. Gaullism, however, revealed a less modest goal, one that was not confined to France and did not vanish with the departure of General de Gaulle. On the contrary, it may have gained new leverage from his downfall.


2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Pradella

AbstractThe mêlée that surrounded the last days of Terri Schiavo's life was reminiscent of a classical Greek tragedy. Much like Antigone, Ms. Schiavo became enmeshed in irresistible and opposite forces, resolved to use her situation as an arena for the determination of political and legal issues as diverse as the exercise of states' rights, the extent of individual rights, the role of the judiciary, the re-opening of the abortion debate, and the regulation of stem cell research. As Europeans watched the drama unfold, the forces at play in the United States clashed head-on, in a rhetorically inflammatory spectacle which, on this side of the Atlantic, left many aghast. Most unsettling was the prospect of individuals wielding the power of state and national legislatures in what was, ultimately, an intensely personal affair.In the United Kingdom, the struggle was a stark reminder of the differences, not only between British and American political culture, but between our approaches to legal issues which present themselves at the end of life. The existence of well-established procedures and principles, and the extensive involvement of neutral third parties and the courts in pursuit of an objective determination of an individual patient's 'best interests', are key to the conclusion that Terri Schiavo's case would have been handled at least as effectively and efficiently as it was by the courts in Florida and the United States. That issues of consent and capacity can be determined by British courts on the basis of generally applicable principles leads to the subsequent conclusion that a 'best interests' determination leaves significantly less scope for conflict than the individualistic, much more personal and determinative construct of the 'substituted judgment' test in the United States.


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