France and the United States

About this book

France, more than any other Western ally, has consistently tried to maintain its autonomy from U.S. foreign policy by insisting on a distinctively French global view and agenda. Whether interpreted as proud independence or petty intransigence, such French assertiveness has often embittered relations between the two nations and has sparked exasperation and resentment on both sides. In France and the United States: the Cold Alliance since World War II, Frank Costigliola examines the cultural and psychological aspects of postwar relations between the United States and its oldest ally and demonstrates the way in which these less tangible factors have colored the strategic, political, and economic ties between the two nations. This is the first major study of the two countries to look closely at the language of their diplomatic and cultural relations, and in particular at the ways in which gendered metaphors and allusions subtly affect attitudes and policies. The author also breaks new ground by considering how the end of the Cold War, the unification of Germany, the Persian Gulf War, the changing role of NATO, and the rise of the European Community have affected U.S. relations with France and with Western Europe as a whole. This timely and lively account sheds light on the political and personal clashes that de Gaulle had with Roosevelt and Johnson and that Mitterrand has had with Reagan and Bush. The author integrates into his political analysis the fascinating stories of the contested introduction into France of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Hollywood films, and Euro Disneyland; the controversial adoption of French theories by some American intellectuals, the quarrel over AIDS, and the building of the I.M. Pei Pyramid at the Louvre. Costigliola's richly detailed account will be an important text for scholars and students of the postwar histories of the United States, France, and Western Europe.