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It seems France is not that well liked in Middle and Eastern Europe. The Volokh Conspiracy elaborates:
Other Czechs, he elaborates, use "Munich" as a shorthand for what they see to be France's failure to support the robustly pro-freedom American policies in Europe. For the latter group, the list of grievances includes some events which were well-known at one time, which have been forgotten by almost all Americans, but which are vividly remembered by many Czechs--such as France's withdrawl from the NATO military command during the DeGaulle presidency.
I found out about the latter a few years ago and I'm still pissed, even though the Netherlands has a good relationship with both the EU (well, not at the moment) and the USA. I can only admire a nation which is proud of itself. (The Dutch could do with a bit more pride, every now and then.) But for the Czechs, who were behind the Iron Curtain, matters were not as easy. I, for one, got miffed for another reason, namely when I dug deeper into this matter and found this little article:
On 7 March 1966, General de Gaulle announced to President Johnson that France was withdrawing from the integrated military organisation. On 1 July 1966, French representatives stepped down from positions in the military organisation. NATO moved out of its headquarters in Versailles and Fontainebleau on 1 April 1967.
General de Gaulle nonetheless maintained French participation in the Atlantic Council. France remained a member of NATO and all its structures except the integrated military command. Instructions were given to prepare for co-operation between French and NATO forces in the event of war, subject to France's decision to participate. The Lemnitzer-Ailleret agreements made comprehensive provisions for possible French intervention alongside Allied forces. Lastly, France maintained its land forces already stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Somehow the bold part doesn't make me sleep better at night. Nor did it go down well with some Dutch, at the time:
Reactions abroad were strong, especially in the USA where anti-French demonstrations were held, but also in Great Britain and the Netherlands.
What I'd like to know, but couldn't find anywhere: are the arrangements that De Gaulle made still in place? I couldn't find any proof to the contrary, but since absence of proof is not proof of absence... France has always been a country which does only what it damn well pleases (< flamebait> maybe that's why the French hate Americans, they are too similar < /flamebait>). For example, they've only stopped nuclear testing in 1996, whereas the UK and the USA stopped in 1991 and 1992 respectively. I wouldn't be surprised to find out nothing has changes since the sixties.
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