Today, I'd like to quote Bill Hamilton, my husband, as what I posted yesterday appears to be an urban legend.
"I suspect this is an urban legend. Powell might have thought that, but he would not say it. However the following is a true story about French honor (and, perhaps, the source of the story) ...
"In the late 1950s the French government ordered all NATO troops out of France. (Hey, the Axis was defeated and the Russians had to get thru Germany before they could reach France, so let NATO forces die in Germany protecting France.) When our ambassador was summoned to receive the demand to remove all US military from France, he said he had only one question -- did that include all of our soldiers who were buried in French graveyards?
"I have been reading a book about the coming of WWII in Europe and the reasons for the French/British defeat in May of 1940. This was, in part, because I had made an analogy between the current situation and the situation in Europe in 1939 ('Munich'). I am usually not a sound bite kind of guy, so I wanted a deeper understanding and a bit of a reality check. I would recommend this book, Strange Victory, to anyone as a general work as well as a carefully documented and reasoned case of how those (liberal and conservative -- Chamberlain was, after all, a Conservative) who worked for 'peace' and 'negotiations, not war' in the late 1930s bear a heavy responsibility for a conflict that ended up killing over 25 million people.
"Sometimes people get intentions and consequences confused."
Strange Victory
Warmly,
Susan
9:25:44 PM
The Real Story 
|
|
