Authors: John J. Miller and Mark Molesky

ISBN: 0385512198

Publishers: Doubleday

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures &CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews   

At first peek the title of this book may seem to be somewhat vicious. Nevertheless, once you have read the book from cover to cover, you probably would concur with authors John J. Miller and Mark Molesky that France is in fact the oldest enemy of the United States, looking at the hundreds of years of France’s belligerent animosity.

As the authors assert at the very onset of Our Oldest Enemy: A History Of America’s Disastrous Relationship With France, French politicians, intellectuals and a large segment of their population really have a profound distaste for Americans bordering on hatred. No doubt, a good part of these feelings are a result of the belief that the USA being a political, cultural and economic giant threatens France’s delusion of grandeur.

It is pointed out that the true story of Franco-American relations began during the French and Indian Wars, many years prior to the American Revolution.

Tracing the beginning of this bad blood as far back as 1704 with the massacre at Deerfield Massachusetts, the authors succinctly present readers with enlightening history lessons that will aid in interpreting present day realities between these two countries.

We are informed that France’s influence in North America and its claim of being a first rate power came crashing down in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, when it was forced to sign away territory in Europe, as well as most of its overseas empire in India and the Caribbean. Moreover, Canada became part of the British Empire, and Louisiana was taken over by the Spanish. All that remained were two islands off the coast of Newfoundland, St. Pierre and Miquelon that two centuries later would prove to be another bone of contention during the Second World War between the French and the Americans.

Notwithstanding their loss of influence, the French still were a thorn on the side of the Americans during the American Revolution and immediately thereafter.

In fact, at times it may have appeared that the French were helping the colonists, however, their intervention had been guided exclusively by the principles of national and narrowly guided self- interest. The same kind of behavioural patterns that has continued into the twenty first century.

America’s neutrality during the early years of its existence was one of the pivotal foundations of its foreign policy, as evidenced by the Neutrality Proclamation issued by George Washington in 1793. The primary objective was to keep out of the French-English conflicts and to protect the young nation from the wars of Europe.

France, however, was not too keen on respecting the sovereignty of the United States and in the late 1700s the French had captured a British vessel, the Grange, in the territorial waters of the US. England insisted that the ship be immediately returned. The French, true to their character as trouble- makers, used every means at their disposal to undermine American neutrality. The chief instigator was France’s representative, Edmond-Charles Genet, who eventually turned out to be the first foreign subversive in the USA.  

Other examples of hapless and sabotaging relations between these two countries are delved into such as the Treaty of Versailles and the disagreements Woodrow Wilson had with his French counterpart, Vichy France, France’s incursions into Vietnam, abominable relations with de Gaulle, France’s flirtation with communism and with the Soviet Union, its cozying up to Saddam Hussein and other dictators made from the same cloth, and finally the present day state of affairs.

There is a tremendous amount of data packed into this 294- page book, and definitely anyone who wants to know more about France’s relationship with the United States would do well to read this book.

Ultimately, readers will have to judge for themselves if in fact France is a friend of the United States, its enemy or just a “pain in the butt.”