you could have heard a pin drop

[gaz1]

> JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in

> France in the early 60's when

> De Gaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he

> wanted all

> US military out of

> France as soon as possible.

> Rusk responded "does that include those who are

> buried here?

> De Gaulle did not respond.

 

>

>

> When in England , at a

> fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by

> the Archbishop of

> Canterbury if our plans for

> Iraq were

> just an example of empire building by George Bush.

> He answered by

> saying, 'Over the years, the United

> States has sent many of its fine young

> men and women into great peril to fight for freedom

> beyond our borders.

> The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return

> is enough to

> bury those that did not return.'

>

 

> There was a conference in France

> where a number of international engineers were

> taking part, including

> French and American. During a break, one of the

> French engineers came

> back into the room saying 'Have you heard the

> latest dumb stunt Bush

> has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to

> Indonesia to help the tsunami

> victims. What does he intended to do, bomb

> them?' A Boeing

> engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers

> have three

> hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people;

> they are

> nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical

> power to shore

> facilities; t hey have three cafeterias with the

> capacity to feed 3,000

> people three meals a day, they can produce several

> thousand gallons of

> fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry

> half a dozen

> helicopters for use in transporting victims and

> injured to and from

> their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how

> many does

> France have?'

>

>

> A U.S. Navy Admiral was

> attending a naval conference that included Admirals from

> the

> U.S. , English,

> Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a

> cocktail reception, he

> found himself standing with a large group of

> Officers that included

> personnel from most of those countries. Everyone

> was chatting away in

> English as they sipped their drinks but a French

> admiral suddenly

> complained that, whereas Europeans learn many

> languages, Americans

> learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we

> always have to

> speak English in these conferences rather than speaking

> French?' Without

> hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe

> it's because the Brits,

> Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you

> wouldn't have to

> speak German.'

>

>

> Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in

> Paris by plane. At French Customs, he

> took a few minutes to locate his passport in his

> carry on.

> "You have been to France

> before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked

> sarcastically.”

> Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to

> France previously.

> "Then you should know enough to

> have your passport

> ready." The American said, 'The last

> time I was here, I

> didn't have to show it."

> "Impossible. Americans

> always have to show your passports on arrival in

> France

> !" The American senior gave the

> Frenchman a long hard look.

> Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I

> came ashore at

> Omaha

> Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help

> liberate this country, I couldn't find a single

> Frenchmen to show a

> passport to."

__________________

[Ian R]

quality

[mr lover]

excellent

[Tannhauser]

Pfft. I smell some down-home good ole boy Frenchie-bashing. The Americans are at their worst when they propagate this sort of nonsense. They've still got some freedom fries on each shoulder because the French wouldn't cave in over the invasion of Iraq (unlike us).

 

The Colin Powell one isn't apocryphal, just out of context. I bet the others never happened.

 

P.S. The French do have an aircraft carrier.

[RobSheffield]

Love that last one

[mkirby]

yeh the last one is class

[supra dan]

love them all. nothing wrong with french bashing

[RiceRocket]

Worst poems/limericks evar!

[Dave]

[hogmaw]

Love that last one

 

Yes ha ha but impossible for it to be true.

[Jake]

Yes ha ha but impossible for it to be true.

Why?

[AlexJames]

> A U.S. Navy Admiral was

> attending a naval conference that included Admirals from

> the

> U.S. , English,

> Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a

> cocktail reception, he

> found himself standing with a large group of

> Officers that included

> personnel from most of those countries. Everyone

> was chatting away in

> English as they sipped their drinks but a French

> admiral suddenly

> complained that, whereas Europeans learn many

> languages, Americans

> learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that we

> always have to

> speak English in these conferences rather than speaking

> French?' Without

> hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe

> it's because the Brits,

> Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you

> wouldn't have to

> speak German.'

---------------

 

I LOVE this one

[hogmaw]

Why?

 

Because who would have overheard the conversation? At passport control it's a one-to-one. The officer is hardly going to have repeated it to his mates, and the old man would have too much dignity to have tell such a tale, if it had happened at all.

[Safely Insured]

Absolute pro-American rubbish.

[Jake]

Because who would have overheard the conversation? At passport control it's a one-to-one. The officer is hardly going to have repeated it to his mates, and the old man would have too much dignity to have tell such a tale, if it had happened at all.

 

Blimey that's a stretch.

Fwiw I think they're all tall tales but I wouldn't say any of them were impossible.

[Axle]

They've still got some freedom fries on each shoulder because the French wouldn't cave in over the invasion of Iraq (unlike us).

 

Very true.

[plus1]

Enjoyed the last three.

[Tannhauser]

I agree with Jake that it's not impossible. Exceedingly unlikely though. Take this one (with my emphases added):

 

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.”

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready." The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!"

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look.

Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."

 

1) Some urban legends have nothing behind them, but here the intention is clear: to highlight the supposed moral inferiority of the French. This is apparent from the content, in all of which the French are demonstrating either short memories about the debts they owe to the allies, or expressing doubts about American intervention.

2) This is supported by the language used. In the example above, as in some of the others, we have a sarcastic Frenchie (no doubt with onions round his neck and a beret to complete the stereotype) challenging an elderly gent (emphasising his gallic disrepectfulness) and a military veteran (doubly disrepectful). But the veteran doesn't lose his rag, he responds with quiet dignity, further emphasising the difference in their virtue.

3) The earliest date I can find for this little collection is 2003 - the time at which anti-French sentiment was at its height following their refusal to back the invasion.

4) In some versions, Robert Whiting is a Canadian. I'm not sure why this should be, but this morphing according to the needs of thetime or the local group is pretty typical of urban legends.

 

You can find this posted on US military websites, and as you might expect, they eat it up with a spoon.

[Tannhauser]

Just found a discussion of this at Snopes messageboard. A Swiss guy on there said this, which I thought was interesting and well put:

 

14 years ago, I had a holiday in Normandy, and had the opportunity to meet an 80-something veteran of the 101st Airborne in Sainte-Mère-Eglise, where he had come back to jump from a C-130 with a number of his old comrades as a part of the 50th D-Day anniversary.

 

I can tell you the guy was so pleased to be in France, treated like the hero he was and offered drinks by everyone that he hardly wanted to go back to the US.

 

And in every village, every street, you saw flags of the Allied nations and banners saying : "WELCOME TO OUR LIBERATORS".

 

And the cheers were so loud that you couldn't have heard NFBSKing BOMB drop.

 

I'm sick and tired of that French-bashing bullshit just because the French were wise enough not to follow Bush on his own private Crusade. It's funny to see how the French, who had been an important part of the Coalition during Desert Storm and currently have a few thousand soldiers in Afghanistan suddenly fell from "Valiant Allies" to "Surrender Monkeys"-status as soon as they stopped doing what GWB told them.

[hogmaw]

I agree with Jake that it's not impossible. Exceedingly unlikely though.

 

The difference between 'exceedingly unlikely' and 'impossible' is small enough for me to conclude that it didn't happen.