Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France: Amazon.co.uk: John J. Miller, Mark Molesky: Books

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars some painful truths, 22 Feb 2005

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France (Hardcover)

While it is true that Lafayette helped fight the British in the American War of Independence,this was THE exception to the overall course of relationships between the U.S. and France, and was only the result of a French policy at the time,of fighting the British everywhere for colonial spoils.
Since that time, France has pursued the policy of a general anti-U.S. stance .This book makes for uncomfortable reading for the U.S.lefty-liberal intelligentsia,as it analyses in detail this policy, and refutes their tenet of somehow this is all a Bush-related problem.The book makes clear that the anti-U.S policy has been consistent and pre-dates by decades the election of President Bush.No doubt it also makes uncomfortable reading for the French who prefer to cast their actions as being isolated disagreements with the U.S.However,this book makes clear from the sheer overwhelming,and continued number of cases in ALL areas that this can only be French policy despite their protestations to the contrary.The question remaining is what to do about it.Clearly the U.S. should take its blinkers off and stop expecting France to behave as an ally.This would be much healthier in the long run for the relationship between the 2 countries.

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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute rubbish, 19 Jan 2005

By	M. Paul Kirkness "Polo" (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France (Hardcover)

I am truly amazed... Being a history student and specializing in Franco-american relationships, I must say that some of the unrealities of this book are astounding. I would guess that around three quarters of it are inadequate, exagerated or simply irrelevant bits and bobs of international diplomacy jutted in to further an unobjective point of view.

If these authors had started writing the book by stating their attitude towards France, I wouldn't be so upset. Indeed, what Molesky and Miller should have begun by saying is something along these lines : "The stance taken by Jacques Chirac before the Iraqi war is one that infuriates us. We are genuinely angry and all our efforts have been articulated at looking back into the past at all the flaws in Franco-American international relations".

One will quite quickly notice that all these "flaws" are, according to these authors, provoked by France... Reference is made to "the French" as though the "oldest enemies" of the US were a nation of people who think alike : all anti-American, all anti-war, all pseudo-intellectuals who prefer poetry and talk to getting things done. These generalisations will quickly annoy the objective reader.

Simply to sum up and make my point clear : "Our oldest enemies" is a frightening book which takes us back to the McCarthyism years - "Since they are not with us, they are against us..."

I am sure that a Harvard professor like Molesky and a good journalist like Miller could quite clearly have written a more "serious" book, one that looks at the diplomacy problems without getting into a personal vendetta.

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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One-sided nonsense, 7 Jan 2005

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France (Hardcover)

It is amazing what publishers agree to publish. Why any publishing house should consider this one-sided simplistic nonsense of any interest to anyone is beyond me. But the best advice I can give it is avoid it like the plague- it's not even an interesting read. Save your money for more interesting, intelligent and informative books.