Article: The Gauls, de Gaulle, the Gall: the story told of Franco-American friendship is a nice story. But it's just a story.(John F. Kerry's views on relations between United States, France)

IN the first presidential debate, John Kerry repeated an old story. During the Cuban missile crisis, he said, President Kennedy dispatched his secretary of state to France, where his envoy met Charles de Gaulle and offered to show him satellite photos of Soviet missile sites. But the French president wasn't interested in looking at the images. "The word of the president of the United States is good enough for me," said de Gaulle. Then Kerry delivered his punch line: "How many leaders in the world today would respond to us, as a result of what we've done, in that way?

It was a curious anecdote. For one thing, JFK didn't send his own secretary of state, but ...

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