JFK'S
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in
France in the early 60's when
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle
said he wanted all US
Military out of France as soon as
possible.
Rusk responded, "Does that include those who are
buried here?"
DeGaulle
Did not respond.
You could have heard a
pin drop.
When in England, at a fairly large
conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our
plans for Iraq were just an example of
'empire building' by George
Bush.
He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United
States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to
fight for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever
asked for
in return is enough to bury those that did
not return."
You
Could have heard a pin
drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of
international engineers
were taking part, including French and American.
During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying,
"Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an
aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does
he
intend to do, bomb them?"
A Boeing engineer stood up and
replied quietly: "Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat
several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency
electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the
capacity to
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several
thousand
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half
a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to
and
from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does
France have?"
You could have heard a pin
drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval
conference that included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian,
Australian and French
Navies at a cocktail reception, he found himself
standing with a large
group of officers that included personnel from most of
those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their
drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn
many
Languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it
that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather
than speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral
replied, "Maybe it's because the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans
arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."
You could have
heard a pin
drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AND THIS
STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly
gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few
minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
"You have been
to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer
asked
sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to
France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your
passport ready."
The American said, "The last time I was here, I
didn't have to show it."
"Impossible. Americans always have to
show their passports on arrival in France !"
The American
senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he
quietly explained,
''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate
this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport
to."
You could have heard a pin
drop.
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