The Last Time That The US Came Uninvited to France

I sat and read over various comments by French President Macron today.  A day or two ago, he was suggesting that the EU needed to build up an Army to handle the potential threat one day from Russia, China or the US (hinting that we might invade).

Twice, the US has come over to France.

The first time, we were invited.  It was one of those grave and serious moments when a worn out British and French Army could not mount some major attack and end World War I.  You can go over the list of battles and the change of the war from the moment of arrival....it doesn't matter.  It ended in roughly eighteen months, and we quietly packed up and left.  We didn't stay.....we had no need to stay.

The second time, we were not invited.  To be honest, the French government in 1944 was dominated by the Germans, and there just wasn't going to be an invitation.

So we came on landing craft....upon a beach or two, and left young dead American GI's there upon the beach.  To be kinda honest, we ensured that there were a lot more dead German GI's than American ones. 

We didn't stick around the beach much or have a chance to really mingle with local Normandy folks (things were pressing for time and movement).

In six to eight weeks, we'd kinda crossed the French countryside....met a number of French people who seemed to want to hug us, offer up plenty of wine, and shed some tears over what had to be done.  For this type of business....you need rough men who are capable of going out into the night, and stormy weather....with a preoccupation to settle wrongs.  It's hard to find men like this, but we seem to have found enough to do the job.

When 1945 ended, the beaches of Normandy were silent....graves were dug....and memorials were being prepared. 

To be honest, I've traveled around a fair bit of Europe, and found that around regular working-class French folks....we Americans tend to be more like them....than our Brit cousins.  Course, with the French intellectual class.....it's not the same story. 

I look upon Macron's commentary as one delivered by someone with a political agenda and hyped to send a message.  The general public trend for Macron?  It's spiraled down since the election and he able has a 25-percent approval rating in the country. 

I think we can mostly all assure Macron....we have no real intentions of invading France.  Yeah, if some Nazi folks were to show up and things were going badly for the French....we'd probably find more landing craft, and stage another landing at Normandy, if required.