The anti-American madness has not been since 2003. If my personal experience is any guide, the misguided diplomacy resulted from pre-existing anti-American madness.
When we travelled around France in Oct/Nov 2002 it was the first time we encountered UNSOLICITED insults about America. Paris was the exception... I don't believe we encountered one single political comment in our two weeks there. But out in the countryside, it was different. People went out of their way to come over and tell us they didn't like our president or our policies. This happened on the street, in restaurants, and elsewhere when people heard my Americanized French. Without exception, they started out saying something like, "I see you're Americans...you don't like your president, do you?". When we said yes, we did, they proceeded to recoil in horror, as if we were drooling idiots. We learned to simply say he makes us feel safe and try to end the conversation. In all but one instance that worked...the one instance being the woman who followed us down the street yelling that America was going to get the whole world blown up.
Now, keep in mind, this was BEFORE the invasion of Iraq. It was before France undercut the U.S. resolution at the Security Council. It was before the "Weasels" headline in a prominent U.S. newspaper. It was only 14 months after 9/11.
We were thoroughly stunned at the open hostility. We were left wondering what the U.S. had ever done to merit such condescention. Many here have mentioned the U.S. contribution to freeing France in WWII. But we also provided the main defense against Soviet aggression duing the 40 years of the Cold War...while millions of Frenchmen marched and demonstrated against our presence.
Can you help us understand the "Anti American madness"? Perhaps we can get some dialogue started in this poor forum and start to mend some of the damage.
the result of media hype not real fact, the whole thing is a mess and i blame media in both countries as well as poor choices made in France's diplomatic conduct..
This happened to me too.
When Clintoon was in office.
Thanks for the first hand report with specific examples.
Same thing happened to me when I lived in Italy in 2002/2003 except it wasn't the Italians, it was French I would find myself sitting next to in the restaurants in Rome. Often, when I would order my 'cafe Americano' they would say something disgusting and then move to another table as if sitting next to an American was going to spoil their food. That's when I decided to forego Paris. I never said a word to them but they sure spoke volumes of anti-American hate to me both with their words and their actions.