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France's Royal D-Day Snub
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President Sarkozy’s cold shoulder to the Queen on D-Day’s anniversary doesn’t surprise Michael Korda—65 years after the Allies saved the French, he’s still waiting for a “thank you.”
It is hard to celebrate the past in an ecumenical way, or even in a fair-minded one, apparently. The trouble with the past is not just that it’s behind us, it’s that it is not even over yet. Thus the tiff over President Sarkozy’s decision not to invite Queen Elizabeth II to the ceremony on the 65th anniversary of D-Day—a piece of monumental French rudeness that was hardly assuaged by a last-minute invitation to the Prince of Wales. It exemplifies not the Allied unity that General Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted on and, without which the invasion of Europe, could never have succeeded, but instead the thousand-year history of mutual recrimination and contempt that, with a short interruption during the reign of King Edward VII, has always characterized the prickly relationship between France and Great Britain. Even in the First World War, when they were fighting on the same side, and in the Second World War, when Britain was at least theoretically on the same side as General de Gaulle’s France Libre, there were still many in England for whom the natural enemy was not Germany, but France, and many in France who still thought their natural enemy was l’Albion perfide.
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Ike would have been the first to protest the travesty of the French and the American heads of state celebrating D-Day without the presence of Her Majesty. The French, after all, did not fight at D-Day. D-Day was fought to liberate the French, and the troops who did it were predominantly British, American, and Canadian—73,000 Americans, 66,000 British, and more than 20,000 Canadians, to be exact. If you lump the British and the Canadians together, because Canada was then a dominion and her head of state King George VI, the king’s troops exceeded those of the United States. In terms of ships and aircraft, the division was about equal. Ike’s ground commander (the supremely disagreeable General Bernard Montgomery), his air force commander (the despised Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory), and his naval commander (the much-admired Admiral “Bert” Ramsay) were all British. Ike had not even wanted General de Gaulle to attend D-Day, and de Gaulle’s last-minute arrival caused a major Allied row the day before, when Ike had other things on his mind.
President Sarkozy is not celebrating D-Day, but twisting it to suit his purposes. The men who died at D-Day did not die shoulder-to-shoulder with their French comrades. They died to liberate the French from a sinister and brutal occupation.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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New York Times bestselling author Michael Korda's books include Ike, Horse People, Country Matters, Ulysses S. Grant, and Charmed Lives.
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flyoverland
President Sarkozy's chauvinism and bad manners (the latter unusual in one of Hungarian descent)
I am sure tens of millions of Slovaks would beg to differ--have you ever heard of Magyarization?
jeffzekas
My wife and son were visiting Paris three years ago, and were lost in a metro station. They were approached by an elderly French couple.
"We love Americans!" they said.
"What?" my wife replied, unsure of what they had been spoken.
Again, slowly, clearly, deliberately, the husband said, "We... love... Americans..."
My wife smiled, and said, "Thank you. We... love ... the French!"
Evidently, not all the French people have forgotten the sacrifices at D-Day.
finderj
So the president of France has the manners of a spoiled child.
I doubt that the people who remember D-Day because their family lost loved ones, because they know a survivor, because they met the liberators as they took and held the beach and passed into the French countryside, give a damn about Sarkozy.
Some people understand respect and honor.
Others do not.
Guess which one Sarkozy is.
jeffzekas
Update on BBC online as of 6 June 2009:
"The French government previously denied it had intended to snub the Royal Family after failing to invite the Queen to the commemorations, with Prince Charles travelling to France after a last-minute invitation.
Mr Brown gave a speech in which he praised "men of courage and bravery".
Plantagenet
President Sarkozy and his wife courteously invited President Obama and his wife to dinner, and Obama refused, snubbing Sarkozy just as harshly as Sarkozy snubbed the Queen. There seems to be more then one president with the bad manners of a spoiled child among the politically powerful.
eroteme
I think you will find that there is an official dinner at which the President of France will host the President of the US. The dinner invitation that was turned down was a private invitation. In a short trip with very busy schedule and many worthy people to meet, it is not surprising that the Obama's turned the invitation down. There was also much speculation in the French press that the Sarkozy's intended to use the event as a publicity stunt.
connie47
A common sense post, not so common here at TDB lately.
davidcannon
You are comparing President Obama turning down an invitation to a private dinner (not a state dinner) with snubbing the British monarach and the British people who were instrumental in freeing france on the commoration of D Day. Hardly equal - even by the highly partisan standards of how Republicans review Obama's performance.
AliceJ
I can't believe you find moral equivalence in these two events!
Beauzeaux
>>President Sarkozy and his wife courteously invited President Obama and his wife to dinner, and Obama refused, snubbing Sarkozy just as harshly as Sarkozy snubbed the Queen. <<
Not exactly. Sarkozy tried his best to make a connection with the world's most popular man to score points in advance of the EU elections. Obama, not surprisingly, did not want to appear partisan.
exploora
That is what happens during power politics, it is mostly adversarial. They go on about the horrible Nazi era, as if what is going on today is better.
You take the "campaign" in the vancouver province. There is an interview of a legal aid lawyer, I guess she is taking the clients cases as criminal cases, if her background criminal law, she is not a social security lawyer, assuming her background is criminal law. Adversarial relationships are faster, they are not meant to solve problems. They create positions in society, the winner and the loser.
Everyone knows the big money is in criminal law, not social security law. Treating desperate people who have no one or nothing, as criminals is easy. Turn your back, lock the door, and justify it by calling "touch love".
Why don't they just admit it, representing these homeless people, as a social security lawyer would be harder, and less money in it for them. It would not even be adversarial. Imagine that.
The holocaust happened because the public service workers were being paid to do those jobs. If other jobs had been designed for those public service workers, other outcomes would have happened.
Hate is always the factor which justifies the cruelty.
exploora
I meant: Everyone knows the big money is in criminal law, not social security law. Treating desperate people who have no one or nothing, as criminals is easy. Turn your back, lock the door, and justify it by calling "tuff love". Don't forget the fees. No one is going to do this for free. There is big money in legislated poverty. With a criminal record, which they get so then can get "help", they are marked by the very people that are supposed to help them. It is ok to destroy a person's future, especially if they are a "bastard", as long as property is not damaged and the public service get paid, get their medical, get their food, they housing and of course keep their health.
exploora
I meant: It is ok to destroy a person's future, especially if they are a "bastard", as long as property is not damaged and the public service get paid, get their medical, get their food, their housing and of course keep their health.
How do you think the holocaust started? There was massing unemployment, hyperinflation, and public service created jobs. I am not against public service, as long as it doesn't harm one sector of the public to give another sector a better life.
exploora
I meant: How do you think the holocaust started? There was massive unemployment, hyperinflation, and public service created jobs.
That is what is going to happen now. These people will be the scapegoats, and create jobs for the public sector. Now I am talking about Canada, which is technically a second world country. The USA has social security lawyers, than appear to be respecting the constitutional rights of these people. We the need same. Germany at the holocaust needed the same. That is why America has such moments of greatness, because if you fight for your you usually can win, where as in many countries, no one will speak or fight for your rights. Sometimes I am ashamed to be Canadian, the way the good Germans must have been ashamed at the time of the holocaust.
exploora
I meant:
The USA has social security lawyers, that appear to be respecting the constitutional rights of these people. We need the same. We need social security lawyers to protect people's rights who have fallen through the safety night.
Germany at the time of the holocaust needed the same.
We should not be too smug. I leave in a country where possibly 50 women were disposed of in a woodchipper, and how could the neighbours not known? People hear people screaming and do nothing, unless you pay them, then they might fill out a form, and get paid to do it twice once it is discovered they couldn't be bothered to spell your name right the first time.
exploora
We are no better. So we should not be smug, and of course I meant I live in a country where possibly 50 women were disposed of in a woodchipper, and how could the neighbours have not known? I wouldn't mind becoming American if I had an opportunity. Marriage proposals will be considered :) I am opposite of most people.
exploora
Do you think the Vancouver Province would have such a campaign if it didn't sell newspapers?
KuroTenshi
WTF?
snakesonablog
It appears that someone has partaken of a little too much "BC gold" today.
oldpunk
Jah Rasterfari
theblender
DITTO! apparently, ms exploora has loads of time to ponder aimlessly about?
piktor
How do you know "ms exploora" is not a male?
whipmawhopma
I've read posts she (or he) made that leads me to believe exploora is female, from the context of her (or his) replies, but one never really knows.
overdue
Mr Korda clearly has issues with The French and their manners, as he should.
However, as an American who's been living in France for 10 years, I can assure him, that in spite of their horribly misinformed, anti-american ideas, every French person, to a T, tells me they're profoundly grateful for the help they got from the US during WWII.
My Father-in-law, who was born not far from Normandy, still reminisces about how in awe he was as a child by the American forces in the area.
scough
He was undoubtedly surprised to see a soldier in uniform not attempting to surrender every five seconds.
shadaypr
...however, the question is "are they grateful with the British?", not with the Americans, for which reason Obama was invited. I need to read more on this to fully understand how can that help be dismissed in France. I can tell you though that I read a French article here in Paris where the author criticized Sarkozy for not acknowledging the British part, they who had been enduring the war and fighting before the US came in. So the French know. I just don't know about Sarkozy.
connie47
This was an incredible breach of manners on Sarkozy's part. At the last minute, following a huge uproar, he invited Prince Charles, who graciously accepted and is there.
I just watched the singing of the national anthems of France, Canada, Britain and the US. I teared up in each one.
fredmertz
France is a beautiful country, with a great history of art and design and a boorish, no, swinish attitude of entitlement to the rest of the world.
The French did not fight at D-Day. Their government was too busy collaborating. The British had to sink the entire French Navy because the French Government, after having been defeated ignominiously in 1940, betrayed their promises to England and failed to scuttle their fleet but rather GAVE it to the Germans.
The French police worked hand-in-hand with the Gestapo. French government agencies helped administer the "New Reich State" and of course let's not forget that NO OTHER COUNTRY had such a clearance rate of Jews. The French Government, Police and citizens eagerly gave up their Jews to the Holocaust.
The word Vichy has become synonymous with betrayal and collaboration.
And the vaunted "French Resistance" was basically a myth, a public relations story cooked up by the British to justify the many thousands of deaths of British soldiers which Churchill knew result when liberating these cocky, ungrateful cowards. There were less than 1000 French men and Women active in the Resistance - about as many as in the German Resistance. (The old joke is "If everyone who SAYS he was in the Resistance WAS in the Resistance, there would have been no need for D-Day.")
The most telling fact is that there were never more than 5,000 German soldiers occupying Paris, a city of millions of Frenchmen who eagerly continued to sell their wares, their wine, their women and their country's honor.
Should we really expect the French to be any different now?
Beauzeaux
The French have always been ready to capitulate rather than risk any harm to Paris. The Brits, on the other hand, were prepared to have every building in London destroyed rather than surrender.
Amjong the allies Britain was the ONLY country in the war from the first day to the last.
On the subject of French resistance, the film "The Sorrow and the Pity" tells you everything.
fredmertz
Uh, so was Canada.
whipmawhopma
And South Africa.
artois
Actually Fred you're wrong! The Dutch had the highest "clearance rate" at 95% while France actually had the lowest (73%).
artois
Moreover, "clearance" would not have EVEN BEEN POSSIBLE without American companies. Check your history!
fredmertz
artois (and I love your beer) Anne Frank wasn't kept alive for three years in France.
GPatton
What ungrateful basterds!
artois
If you recall - Ann Frank was ultimately "cleared"...
whipmawhopma
President Sarkozy has issues but he did issue a timely invite to the Prime Minister of ex-Great Britain - the amazingly politically inept Gordon Brown. The Right Honourable Gordon Brown is participating in the D-Day activities.
Gordon Brown or his office should have made certain of who exactly on the British side would be participating, and perhaps his office did, since rumor has it that he's feuding with the Queen.
I really don't know this, but I would think that in a royalty co-dependent country like ex-Great Britain that one or more government employees is charged with being the liaison with the Queen's household.
I doubt Gordon Brown will be getting post-prime ministership knighthood from his monarch after this, though it might improve Tony Blair's chances of getting one on the rebound.
The Daily Beast did this story earlier, in May. Here are the links to the Daily Beast's article and the highly entertaining New York Times article.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/queen-steamed-over-d-day-s nub/feud/?cid=cs:headline10
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/europe/28queen.html?_r=2&ref=Eur ope
By the way, I read Michael Korda's biography of US Grant. It was rather nicely done. Korda has roots in Hungary and participated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Thank you.
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