Clarification.
I see that my short version of the French history has confused some people. Allow me to walk you through it.
This is what I wrote
Surrender, surrender, mutiny and troops refusing to attack, win anyway due to massive help from allies that are forced to fight for france while the french troops are refusing to attack, surrender, surrender, create myth of brave resistance fighters, send in foreign legion but surrender anyway, surrender again, send in UN troops, avoid conflict, avoid conflict, send in foregin legion and surrender anyway, avoid conflict, sell arms to mad dictators to avoid conflict, appease mad dictators, blame UN, blame US, veto any war against mad dictators.
--Details---
Surrender -1815 End of the Napoleon war
surrender -1872 End of the German-French war
mutiny and troops refusing to attack -1916 French attacks at Verdun halted because troops refuse to attack.
win anyway due to massive help from allies that are forced to fight for france while french troops are refusing to attack. After the mutiny, the entire French army was put on defensive duty only. Meanwhile, the Brittish took over the offensive duties, which resulted in massive loss of British life while the French troops were recovering from the horrors of being in a war. Then of cource the US too had to come and bail France out.
Surrender-1940, not much to say about that
Surrender -Vichy troops surrender to allies in 1942.
Create myth of brave resistance fighters -As I said earlier. If you compare what the french resistance actually did during the war, and the number of people who claimed to be part of the resistance after the war, you have to seriously question what all those hundreds of thousands of partisans were doing. You might also want to compare those actions to the activities of the Polish, Yugoslavian and Russian partisans.
NOTE here I forgot to insert a Surrender when Germany attacked Vichy in 1942.
send in foreign legion but surrender anyway -1954, Dien bien Phu. After the war lots of Germans joined the legion. This became a problem for the French that was solved at Dien bien Phu where 80-90% of the German legionnares died. (the last "reinforcements" were paradropped into the surrounded and doomed garrisson, of these "reinforcements" 95% were Germans.
surrender again -Algeirs 1960 if I remember correctly. (Although it should have been "send in foreign legion but surrender anyway. Here a unit from the Foreign Legion actually had a mutiny when they were ordered to surrender by the French government. The legionnares refused, and the situation became an embarrassement for the French government (as if they could BE more embarrassing) At the end the situation was solved, but the Legion was forbidden from entering French soil again. The unit was then stationed on Corsica (sp). The unit was the REP.
send in UN troops -First attempt from UN to secure Israel Egypt borders ended miserably in 1967. French initiative who have always worked against Israel (Syria is old French colony with close ties)
avoid conflict -This one should have been before "surrender again" above. It is regarding the 1956 "suez crisis"
avoid conflict -US asking French for help with the Lebanon situation in 1982, turned down naturally.
send in foregin legion and surrender anyway -Rwanda (cant remember the year)
avoid conflict -Kongo civil war where the Belgians had to get involved because the French didnt want to.
sell arms to mad dictators to avoid conflict -Iran to avoid getting caught in the same situation as the US after the revolution 1979
appease mad dictators, -Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan
blame UN, blame US -When weapons sold to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan were starting to pop up in various wars against Israel and/or terror attacks. Also applies to 1991 war.
veto any war against mad dictators -latest achievement
NOTE Upon going through this I realize I have forgot several highlights of French feat of arms. Such as:
Vietnam (avoid conflict)
Kongo (avoid conflict)
Korea (avoid conflict)
Bosnia (blame US/UN, despite being HUGE part of what caused the war by recognizing Bosnia first of all nations)
Kosovo (blame US/UN despite being huge reason behind war... same reason as above)
Liberia (avoid conflict)
Somalia (avoid conflict)
etc etc etc
The list can be made very long...
