Word: frenchmen
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Certainly we Frenchmen know our own weaknesses better, you may be sure, than any outsider. We cannot conceal from ourselves the consequences of our political instability, the insufficient development of our economy, or our weakness in military power. You can depend on our selfcriticism. I leave it to you to decide whether we are the only nation suffering from weaknesses...
...with him the U.S. effort to save South Viet Nam from the Communists. But most Americans here conclude, nevertheless, that French actions and policies will have that effect unless they are soon and sharply confined. There are endless skeins of intrigue and sabotage being woven here by lower-echelon Frenchmen, many of whom will privately admit that they would like nothing better than to see the Diem government collapse. French colonialism may be fighting only a rearguard action, but so far it is surprisingly effective...
Said he: "The figure that France cuts in the world, because of ministerial instability, wounds and irritates Frenchmen. The Assembly can overthrow as many governments as it pleases without any other motive than the opportunity of its members to satisfy ambitions overstimulated by the very frequency of the crises." Added Reynaud with a bitter irony: "It's becoming a disgrace not to have been a minister just like everyone else...
...company in the film; it so happens that most oil companies are American, but your critic is not justified in saying that it stands for America. To us, here, it was just an unpleasant oil company. What should we say, then, when we see your movies, where all Frenchmen are ridiculous, and most French women are prostitutes...
...total result is that nothing much gets done. It reduces progressive Frenchmen to despair and to a cynical conviction that nothing can ever be done. But it suits provincial "static" France very well. And impatient critics who argue that all France needs is a good two-party system forget the bitter cleavages of French life. If France were divided now into a Left and Right Party, the Left would be dominated, in all probability, by the Communists. In French eyes, a multiparty system is exasperating, but safer...