Need help finding info

Self | 1/31/03 | Self

[Martyboy1]

I heard a comment on the news yesterday and would like help in finding more info on this. Supposedly in the 50's, de Gaulle asked that US troops leave his country and one of our reps said something like, "should we take the soldiers buried at Normandy with us too?" Anyone know if that's true and have a link to the info related to this?

Thanks

[NukeMan]

I heard it was in the early 60's and attributed to Lyndon Johnson, or Robert McNamara.

[End Times Sentinel]

Bill O'Reilly said something like this on The Radio Factor a couple of nights ago.  I'm not sure it was related to deGaulle requesting U.S. troops be withdrawn, but supposedly LBJ told him "Mr. DeGaul, if you persist in  this opinion, I'm going to have Congress vote a law that we dig up all the American Boys who died defending your country and bring them back to the U.S. for a proper American burial."

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[End Times Sentinel]

Hmmm... maybe Bill was wrong and you were correct, although this attributes it to Rusk

http://members.aol.com/JOberacker/QuoteArchive.html

 

(the page goes on forever, do a find (Ctrl F) for De Gaulle or it's the second quote above Historical Reflections)

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[DB]

"The following year, he withdrew France from the nato military command and asked President Lyndon Johnson to remove U.S. troops from France. A seething Secretary of State Dean Rusk flew to Paris to seek clarification: "Does your order include the bodies of American soldiers in France's cemeteries?"

here

[alloysteel]

The de Gaulle tirade occurred during the administration of Eisenhower, and resulted in the US forces being kicked out of France in 1958 and 1959 (I was stationed over there during that period). There was a big scramble to move the various military units back to either England or Germany, and this included the graves maintenance units at several American burial grounds in France. This was the reference to moving the graveyards to a more friendly venue, but I believe the settlement was that the French would take over the stewardship of maintaining the gravesites in perpetuity.

[DB]

Another Reference