tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post7922945625923336183..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: Review: Notes on a Foreign Country - An American Abroad in a Post-American WorldVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-20563930145838669762017-09-29T10:43:01.964+02:002017-09-29T10:43:01.964+02:00That's 2013 and here is the link https://www.h...That's 2013 and here is the link https://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=742623<br />Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-59885016223290904172017-09-29T10:39:23.482+02:002017-09-29T10:39:23.482+02:00Tim, A far greater unfairness is that Japan is n...Tim, A far greater unfairness is that Japan is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Does Japan want nukes? The public is not keen on that however the Right here does want a much bigger military. Look into the neonationalists in Japan. They have a lot of support in the parliament and in the prime minister which is pushing the limits of Article 9. There is a congressional report on this published in 2014 (US Japan Relation) which said, "Abe and his government also have jeopardized U.S. strategic interests in the region by taking steps that have aggravated historical animosities between Japan and its neighbors, particularly China and South Korea." The visits to Yasukuni Shrine were one of those things.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-20692431158625787662017-09-24T02:40:46.476+02:002017-09-24T02:40:46.476+02:00@Victoria
I guess one American argument against F...@Victoria<br /><br />I guess one American argument against French "independence" is it encourages "bad behavior" among other US allies. For example right now if you are Japan looking at the North Korean threat it kind of seems "unfair" that France gets its own nukes while you have to rely on a very unstable and unwell American president for a nuclear deterrent against NK. Again while their are historical reasons for this if you are Japan in the present day this state of affairs supported by the US(and France btw) can seem rather unfair especially when Russia and China haven't kept their side of the bargain in terms of stopping North Korea's Kim from getting nukes.<br /><br />One of the more interesting things I found was France "rejoining" the NATO military command in 2009 that CDG pulled out of, I think was more controversial in the US and the UK than France. More than a few US foreign policy types wanted to stop it or place onerous or totally irrelevant conditions like reopening all the long closed US military bases in France(BTW, the underlying treaties related to these French bases were never fully cancelled). I think the truth of the matter is some especially US anglophiles and Brits didn't want to admit that France was coming back into NATO in 2009 as a stronger power than it was leaving it in 1966. France was basically equal with the UK if not stronger. France also got some very big NATO "jobs" in 2009 that were denied to DeGaulle in 1966.<br /><br />On the other hand a significant amount of mainstream elite American opinion felt that it had always been American policy to encourage France to be part of the NATO military command since 1966 and if France wanted to rejoin the US could hardly say no and simply as a logistical matter the NATO command once France was a member again would have to be reorganized to reflect the role of France's military in 2009 NOT in 1966 when it left. Furthermore the idea of the US "adding" bases in France when the US had been closing bases and cutting military costs for years was totally laughable. Again this is what I refer to as "splits" in American "elite" opinion towards France in the last decade. <br /><br />On another note I don't the think the Brits were at all happy with France laying claim to the "Number 2" slot in NATO and as such may have caused some of the physiological issues behind the Brexit vote.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_Command_Transformation<br /><br /> Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-50013671231593034392017-09-24T00:14:58.537+02:002017-09-24T00:14:58.537+02:00Nezumi-san, Thank you for directing me to Magasok...Nezumi-san, Thank you for directing me to Magasoki's book. You're right and there is no English translation. I did find a Forbes article summarizing it. Very sobering. I did find another title that is now on my to-read list: Legacies of the U.S. Occupation of Japan: Appraisals After Sixty Years. This one is edited by two Italian academics. Magasoki's book is cited as well as many others. If you are an American in Japan I can understand why one wouldn't want to think about this or the debate over the bases. Especially those who really love Japan. However, is it possible that understanding the context and history could shed some light on such topics as integration and the soft discrimination against them? Maybe. Seems to me that it would be a good thing to explore.<br /><br />Tim, What De Gaulle did is a source of immense pride on the part of the French. (I have an old friend by the way who ws born on one of the US bases in France.) It was an assertion of sovereignty, of independence, which the French continue to this day. And in the end what Americans thought of all this was (and is) kind of irrelevant to the French. But clearly this independent streak really bothers Americans and it's worth asking why. Was it because they could do nothing about it? Sometimes I think Americans care a great deal more for the good opinion of the French than the French care about the good opinion of Americans.Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-68048638459778295832017-09-23T01:35:04.483+02:002017-09-23T01:35:04.483+02:00Below is a rather old paper on Francophobia in the...Below is a rather old paper on Francophobia in the US but I think gives a good historical overview. I think one of the more interesting aspects is how all the political turmoil in both the US and France has scrambled many of the assumptions about the view of France in the US. I would say there has been a lot splintering among different groups in America cited in their views of France since 2003. Liberal Americans after this spring probably look more favorably towards the French popular vote two round electoral system in France after Trump's and Macron's respective victories than they did in 2003. Even some of the anti semitic views of some of Trump's supporters has probably changed the Jewish American view of France since 2003. <br /><br />All of this makes the present state of US French relations far far more interesting than it has been in a long time.<br /><br />https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/vaisse20030725.pdfTimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-48522897639989869092017-09-23T00:02:01.390+02:002017-09-23T00:02:01.390+02:00@Victoria
My sense is a lot of the American disli...@Victoria<br /><br />My sense is a lot of the American dislike of France has to do with the fact that post DeGaulle France started trying to move "back" to a position of equal with the United States that is had lost during the first and second World Wars. A lot of Americans especially the elite don't like the assertion of equality. Even during Pershing's time it was at not as if ALL Americans supported America entering the War on the side of France.<br /><br /><br />The video below gives a good desire of France's desire to be equal in the 1960s.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcOT9pLSeUsTimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03894651289037073128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-1797091205327218612017-09-22T05:53:22.009+02:002017-09-22T05:53:22.009+02:00As for my opinion on the bases, I have always thou...As for my opinion on the bases, I have always thought they were bad for both countries. But I don't think the situation is going to change any time soon.<br />Inaka Nezuminoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-76861244519963244562017-09-22T05:38:47.053+02:002017-09-22T05:38:47.053+02:00I don't know what Americans in Japan think abo...I don't know what Americans in Japan think about the bases. I suspect that if they don't work at them or live near one of them, they don't think about them much at all.<br /><br />An interesting book about the history of US meddling in Japanese domestic affairs is "The Truth about Post-war History" (戦後史の正体), by MAGOSAKI Ukeru (孫崎 享), a retired Foreign Ministry official. I don't think it is available in English, but pretty sobering stuff, considering Japan and the US are supposed to be allies.<br />Inaka Nezuminoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-83846053201114158362017-09-22T05:04:22.037+02:002017-09-22T05:04:22.037+02:00Maria, Or to examine the past which shapes the pre...Maria, Or to examine the past which shapes the present. When the Americans arrived in France in World War I, one of Pershing's people said, "Lafayette, we are here." That was an American who knew his history. France had come to the aid of Americans during the American Revolution and he was saying that this was a grateful America acknowledging a connection, a shared history, a debt. You don't hear much of that anymore on the part of Americans. Instead most recently I hear grumbling along the lines of "we saved them twice and they're ungrateful." That's a disavowal of a common history. An erasure of a relationship of equals. <br /><br />The common history the US has with Japan is different in that there were years of attempts at domination culminating in the occupation of the country after World War II. I don't think Americans in the homeland believe for one minute that Japan is an equal in the relationship. There are debates in Japan about the bases and the English language and so on. And yet I don't see those things as part of the consciousness of the Americans I have met here. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that....Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-13280136889017936942017-09-21T16:57:58.775+02:002017-09-21T16:57:58.775+02:00I read her article based on her book, and I agree ...I read her article based on her book, and I agree with most of what she says, too. Too many Americans have blinkers on when it comes to their homeland. Whether or not they can be removed with travelling abroad depends on whether they want them removed, though. I haven't met any Americans here who weren't Spanish-American, so I can't say other Americans have learned to look at their country differently upon leaving it. I suppose it all depends on how introspective they are. Unfortunately, too many, Americans and others, are very involved looking at their navels to lift their heads and really see the world they live in.Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14249273119777270679noreply@blogger.com