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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (52931)	10/18/2002 2:53:28 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I agree that the thesis was defective, but I do not agree that you addressed it properly, since the French did, indeed, bail out of Vietnam after sustaining far fewer fatalities overall than they had in a single battle in World War I. Thus, though the thesis was stated hyperbolically, there is evidence that there is something to it. It is obvious that our failure to make a full commitment, and home front defeatism, was the cause of the ambiguous termination of our phase of the Vietnam War, and it is also obvious that we have been reluctant to use force unless we have an overwhelming advantage, and are likely to sustain few casualties, so there is something to the idea that our will to fight was damaged by Vietnam, and only revived because of our high- tech capabilities. Thus, we should not make too much of our comparative willingness to fight. Finally, contemplating how horrific French losses were, not just at Verdun, but overall as a percentage of the population, it is fairly understandable that they have been reluctant to make a long term commitment to engage in belligerencies......

To: Bilow who wrote (52931)	10/18/2002 6:13:22 PM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

How about "France lost the will to fight Germany" after WWI? That would explain its lack of preparation, its willingness to ignore Nazi remilitarization, etc. Sure, Germany is a bigger, more powerful country than France - but it had been before WWI, and it took an enormous cost in lives and $$ for France to fight back. It wasn't up to doing it again. Since Germany was neutralized France has only fought in limited wars that didn't have nearly the impact of WWI or WWII in lives lost or $$, and been protected by NATO ( I don't count De Gaulle's "force de frappe" :-/) France, in fact, is negligible in world military affairs and would probably be ignored on that issue if it didn't have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.