Why do my fellow Americans call the French cowards?

Question

I know the the in depth history of WW1 & WW2. It seems my country, the US of A could be mistaken for cowardly too. Since the end of WW2 who have we fought? We thought Korea was gonna be an easy one, then the red Chinese showed up. (we wont touch them again) Vietnam looked like an easy enough win, sorry. Iraq looked easy enough, oops. Why will a bully only pick on someone he thinks he can beat. There were a bunch of insignificant victories over smaller countries and tiny islands, but never anyone who could hurt us.
N. Korea, China,USSR. Those fights would have taken brass balls. I don't love or hate France,I'm just asking what you think. They bailed us out a couple of times, in case you forgot. There might not have been a USA had it not been for the help of France.
PS They fought in Afghanistan, but they thought Iraq was a bad idea, we thought they were cowards? Seems they were just smarter than us.

Answer 1

Well said !
In all the centuries the French where considered as a war mongered nation who fought a lot of battles (and lost more battles by being too brave as due too cowardice).
WWII is mentionned : yes the French gave up, so did the Dutch, Belgians, Norvegians, Danish, Polish ...
Why : they were not prepared for this new kind of Blitzkrieg.

Just as the British ran but they had an island to run too which gave them time to learn some valualble lessons about how to deal with this kind of warfare. They could win time which the French could not.

Remember Kasserine pass : the inexperienced US soldiers did run like hell and their officers had already read about this new kind of war so they could have been better prepared.
But that is too much thinking for a lot of you that like writing platitudes.

Vietnam : the US found it a colonial war and did not support the French, latter on they got stuck into it also.

When France did participate in the first Gulf war no one called the French cowards.
Now the French found it not ok without a UN resolution and they are called cowards. Germany did not support it either and no one calls the Germans cowards thought they lost more wars to the French than otherwise.

About the French not being thankfull, they do remember their liberators and are thankfull.
But do their liberators still remember the many French resistants that risked their live to find out the position of the guns and bunkers on the beaches, the people that risked their lives to save downed pilots, who blew up railroads to block German reinforcements, ... For them their was no POW-camp when things went bad, only a bullet or the concentration camp. Thanks to these "cowards" a lot of you had a grand father or father that survived the war, so that you could be born. .... Ungratefull cowards you say ?

Before calling a nation cowards, look a little bit deeper into the situation at that moment before writting simple conclusions.

Answer 2

Im not totally sure where this idea that French are cowards came from. As for world war 2 i wouldn’t say they where they where just badly led. It was all about moral French army was badly structured and badly led. Although France was taken in ww2 they didn’t give up with out a fight. If it wasn’t for the French 8th army the Dunkirk evacuations wouldn’t have gone as well as they did the French 8th army held on in the south of the allied encirclement for a long time. then as many of them retreated to Britain with the British army and a few years later the free French army was created they took part in the fighting in north Africa and the invasion of Europe they took part in the Normandy landings and the American landings in the south of France. Germany conquered many nations at the start of the Second World War none of them where cowards every single one though well.

I have never considered the French cowards they are a very proud people so they may have made some mistakes hasn’t everyone?

Answer 3

France is a nation of cowards because the gave up in WW II. But it was rather wise to end the fight at that point.
Before that time, France had a great history of military successes. Okay 1870-71 we humiliated them, but that was just the best times for Prussia.
So why does a nation on the other side of the ocean, a nation that didn't enter any world war before it had no way to get around it any longer, why does such a nation consider the french cowards? I am not sure about the gay thing, mentioned by somebody else, but due to the fact that Romans and Greeks had gays, I think this theory is rather absurd.
And if we can relate France to sex it must be to oral sex. And I am very sorry, but I don't think there was any better invention made in the USA...

The french are no cowards, but they earned that "title" during WW II.

Answer 4

in stead of of only taking WW II and other recent battles you Americans should better do some effort and take a look at the total history of Europe ( yes, there are things that happened before 1939 ) and then you will see that there are battles where the french certainly ain't coward. Like battles against the Romans, the crusades, Napoleon, the 1 hundred year war against England , etc.
And something else it is not that there is a president in the US that who is so stupid to start a war ( Iraq ) where many other country's told him that's a very bad Idea ( nothing to do with the war against terrorism ) that al those country's are cowards.
And putting the total blame of losing that war on to the Iraqi population come on get real !

Answer 5

It goes back to World War One. The French high command in a number of cases treated our commanders as little more than ignorant children. This insult has always stuck in the craw of Americans ever sense.

The fact of the matter is the French in the early stages of World War 2 fought poorly and half the country sided with the Germans under the Vichy French who incidentally fired on US troops as they landed in Algeria until it looked as if the Germans were going to lose the war and then suddenly they became "resistance fighters."
Then the french claimed equal status at all the end of the war ceremonies. France since then has one string of failures after another, Indo-China(Vietnam), Algeria, Suez-Canal.
Since Degaulle France has made it's world mission to be a foil to American foreign policies. Best example is Chirac single-handedly attmpted to prevent NATO from using military power to stop the mass-murder and other atrocities being perpetrated against the Kosovo Moslems.
The Korean war we had exhausted the Chinese by 1951 and the war only ended in a stalemate as the UN had lost it's stomach for the war. Otherwsie the US was on the way to winning it.

Iraq is a military triumph. The US forces can go where they want when they want. But it is the Iraqis themselves that are the failure .

The US could have gone to war with any of the three you mentioned but it would have ended in an exchange of Nukes. Otherwise from 1945 to 1991 the United States maintained an army in Europe prepared to confront the Soviet Union in the hundreds of thousands. The US Army in Korea is still there. Does not sound chicken to me.

When has France bailed us out "a couple of times?" 1781 is only a loose theory as France deployed few ground toops to support the US war effort by the time of the siege of Yorktown.
American victories had made French involvement superflous.

Answer 6

Because the americans have always been embarrassed by the fact that they showed up late for both world wars after most of the hard work had been done.
Also the americans realise that they have never won a war by themselves against a strong opponent except for the American Civil War.

Answer 7

Wasn't it the US who liberated France from Germany during WW2? You mentioned your expertise on WW1 and WW2 but seemed to just forget to mention that one little fact. If it wasn't for us the French would be speaking German.
Korea was a stalemate. There is still a divided Korea. And actually, Korea wasn't an official war, it was considered a conflict. Who did the US bail out in Viet Nam....oh that's right.....the French. Left rather quickly too. And when Libyan terrorists hijacked that commercial airliner? The US was going to teach Qaddafi (spelling?) a lesson. So the French (fearing the terrorists) would not allow US bombers to fly over French airspace on their way to Libya. They had to fly 12,000 miles out of their way. After 9/11? Where was the French help? I'm sure there were some French citizens that were killed by Bin Laden. But would they help out any retaliation? No. Because they are afraid of the terrorists.

Answer 8

The canard that "they'd be speaking German if it weren't for us" is so played out. The only people who regard the French as inherently cowardly are just ignorant of history, and considering how ignorant most Americans are of history this attitude doesn't suprise me. Does anyone remember this fellow named Napoleon? There was such a a thing as history before WWII, and that was the only time that they ever really got clobbered, and they lost in once campaign twice as many men as we did in Vietnam. Then again, Vietnam wasn't exactly a shining moment for the French either, but Americans are not really in a position to call them on that one.
The fact is that for most of Europe's history from at least the 13th century on, the French were the dominant military power. People talk about Germany as being Europe's problem child, but Germany has only been a unified entity for about less than 150 years. Before Germany was unified by Bismarck and upset the balance of power, it was France that was regarded as the expansionist, warmongering power on the European stage.
When they did suffer big defeats, such as at Crecy or Agincourt during the Hundred Years War, it ws not from cowardice, but excessive daring, i.e. knights on horseback rushing into battle and being cut down by English longbowmen. Be that as it may, no country that lasts for over a millenium is going to avoid suffering some military defeats from time to time.
If you want to put things in perspective, think about Germany's reputation for militarism and conquest,which is a fairly recent development and lasted maybe a few decades at most, and bear in mind that France was doing this sort of thing on the European stage for some six centuries, if not more.

Answer 9

they might be cowered but the french history tells us that they were the most bloody people fighting for thier freedom the french revolution and the fight back againedt the german invation is a good proof that they r not cowered fighting for thier own right by the way i'm not french

Answer 10

If America hadn't fought in WWII, everyone in France would now be speaking German. Since then we have lent them money to repair and restore their country. Have they made any effort to repay us? No. When they talk about us, do they appreciate what we did? Do they care about the number of young men we lost helping them? No to both questions.

Then when we have a problem and ask for their help where are they?

It's sad that the French people speak so negatively about the US. We have done nothing but help and now we are spit on.

Vive la France my a&&.