French Colonialism Quotes
Nguyen Ai Quoc was early pseudonym. It was many years and millions of combatants sacrificed, but the Vietnamese resistance finally won.
Americans General William Hull had crossed the Canadian border with 2500 men announcing his intention to invade. Brock’s appeal to the loyalty of English-Canadians to fight off the Americans was in their self-interest as English. He argued that if Canada weakened or the Americans temporarily conquered Canada, they could not hold it, and Napoleon's France would re-colonize Canada. In short, fight against the Americans and keep the French out.
The Indian allies of the French scalped some American colonists which for some whites was akin to the modern reaction to terrorist atrocities. The British and Americans then justified the scalping of their Indian allies as simple retaliation. While Indians had scalped before the whites ever came, the whites accelerated the practice. There was an economic element to scalping. The French “paid” their Indian allies in arms, blankets, trinkets and alcohol by the scalp as it was a crude way of “performance measurement.” Not to be outdone, the English adopted the same custom with the French allied Indians as targets. In North Carolina, for example, the “volunteer” rangers were paid the enormous rate of 10 pounds a scalp.
Dewey spoke French and Vietnamese and had connections with all the parties to the struggle for the post WWII contol of IndoChina [Vietnam], His was the first official warning about Vietnam. His relations with the Viet Minh Nationalsits were very good, bue they accidently shot and killed him shortly afterwards when they heard him speaking French to French officers and assumed he was one. He had wanted to fly an American flag on his vehicle, but was prohibited by the British Militay Commander who had ordered that only military vehicles should be allowed to display a flag. He was the first American Casualty of the Vietnam Theater.
Bohlen, Harry Hopkins and President Roosevelt were differing as to how to deal with one of the many ego difficulties of French leader Charles De Gaulle. Ever the diplomat, and trying to find common ground, Bohlen said:
Algeria was not a French Colony but an actual province of France where an Algerian had the same citizenship and rights of a Parisian or any other Frenchmen. However the Algerian nationalists combined with the Islamic extremists wanted independence and had started a revolutionary movement primarily using terrorism. Some members of the French Parliament were liberals who thought the Algerians had a right to self-determination and favored a plebiscite; others saw Algeria as a drag on France and were in favor of having it independent. But the majority at that time saw Algeria as a part of France and opposed a change of status. Many in the army however were afraid that the politicians would "sell out" and their sacrifices would have been in vain. This is a common pattern where parts of nations want independence and the military is asked to put down any violence and terrorism. Eventually, the cost in casualties and money became so great that the government did change and allowed Algerian independence—just what the General and many soldiers had feared. In retrospect, the sacrifices were in vain.
