The French Betrayal of America

by Kenneth R. Timmerman

Book Overview

Can we trust France? Apparently not. After more than 200 years of shared history and interests, the U.S.-France marriage looks as if it's ending in an acrimonious divorce. Here is the shocking insider... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400053668
• ISBN13: 9781400053667
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Crown Forum
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

French betrayal of France

I wanted to read this book after I viewed a debate on French television where the author was almost muted by an aggressive presentator. The few words he managed to utter echoed to my feeling that French media (and French-speaking media here in Belgium) carry on such one-sided campaigns that there must be an explanation for it. The book confirms this and explains it very well. It is remarkably argued, and besides that written in a thrilling style. I am just afraid that this book could incite American readers who would only skip through it to hate French (I read dreadful comments on these pages!) or French-speaking people. But of course it would not be the book's fault... It is certainly hard for American readers to imagine to which degree the large majority of media over here carry brain-washing campaigns (but this is understandable seeing who are the ones controlling the media). It takes a lot of solidity and acuity of mind to resist that. French "elites" not only betray Americans but also their own people and expose them to very earnest consequences in the future.

The title makes it look more radical than it is

Regarding the book, it is actually far more critical of Chirac, in particular, than of France. The author has a strong opinion regarding the issues he discusses (not that you couldn't guess by the title), but the stories inside are reasonably well documented, and dovetail with accounts published in newspapers at the time (the 80's and 90's, for those of us old and interested enough to remember them). The author writes well, and the book is an easy read. However, I keep wondering how many of the 1-star critics have actually *read* the book. Their reviews - almost hysterical in nature, with the odd exception - are the kind you would expect from someone who reads the book description, and, believing it opposite to their preconceived US/World view, decides to deflate it by writing a (pseudo) review and rating it 1-star. Instead of ranting against a perceived neocon cabal against France, it would be far better to point - and document - examples of the book's alleged factual errors; it would make the reviews much more useful to future potential buyers - if that is what the reviewers really want, of course...

From Someone who Has Been There

Timmerman talks about his experience in France from a perspective one who as a journalist who lived and worked there among the great and near great for over 18 years.This is not a book about France bashing to say the least. He reviews throughout the book not only recent history, he links it to the over 200 year relationship the French and the USA have had together since the American Revolution.He likens our relationship to a marriage of sorts that is now on the rocks as Collin Powell put it, "in marriage counselling", with a change in the overall environment since the French decided not to assist us in Iraq.This is a side of the story that only an insider can tell us about. Yes we did help Iraq against Iran in the '80s. Yet the French have assisted Iraq since then in building armaments and the French have resisted helping us in the war on terror in tracking and capturing known active terrorists.Anyone who thinks that we are in the war for the oil may be enlightened by this book because oil and the rights to it is one of the reasons the French did not decide to back our decision to go in. In fact they undermined us to a large extent along with Germany. This new perspective, one which has grown through the years is possibly a result of the power that France shares in the new European Union. However, most of the EU states sided with us, along with Spain, Italy, Poland, because we share a common history with democracy.One of my favorite quotes in the book is from Collin Powell, however it is truncated to; "We've asked for nothing but enough land to bury them (our soldiers) in." What Timmerman left out in this quote was that Powell was responding to accusations at a meeting in Europe where America was accused of attempting to take over the land of Iraq. The implication of Powell's response was that we did take land in France, when we liberated it in WWII and helped defend it in WWI. That land was the massive graveyards that are at places like Omaha Beach and Meuse-Argonne.Timmerman discusses the WMD issue, although none have been found, he felt at the writing of the book, that Saddam had the time to hide or destroy WMDs while the UN inspection carried on for months at a time. He mentions just as with an audit turning up fraud, the onus is on the one caught to come up with the goods.It seems that the WMD issue is mute at this point, however, there is still the issue of the support of global terror and Iraq's involvement therewith. Timmerman chronicles some of that from a perspective that includes an allusion to Ahmad Chalabi.I would be interested in Timmerman's take on Chalabi since the firestorm surrounded him a few weeks ago.This issue of the book however, is not WMDs. It is the selling out of the USA by France and how that relates to the overall war on terror.Timmerman is a very interesting writer. He holds your attention throughout this book as he does in his other successful books. This book is well written and well documented. Time

Excellent book from a man who knows the French (18 years)

If you want to know about the French and their duplicity with the Iraq situation, then read this book. It is stuffed with facts, interviews and figures from a man with plenty of experience with the French. He has written for countless medias, both from the Left and Right, and gives a balanced look of what really happened, without stepping over any lines. Pay no attention to (the few) extremely negative reviewers below, because I can guarantee you they did not read this book, but are just frustrated partisans trying to discourage people. This book is a tell-all that is sure to embarrass and haunt the French for decades to come. The Saddam-French soap opera, along with the corrupt UN oil-for-food scams (that the French had a huge part in) is just getting underway. Expect to see more and more news on this, as the weeks go by. The French cannot hide from this massive, negative exposure and the American people should know about how they were stabbed in the back for Iraqi oil/weapon contracts, debt repayment (from illegal weapon sales), coupled with an anti-American agenda, that has been rife for decades in France. As a person who can read the French language, I have already seen a lot of this exposed in some of France's own medias, but this is a wonderful book that puts all of the facts together, coupled with countless examples of inside information/quotes, for an excellent read. Definitely a page turner! Know thy enemy and the enemy seems to definitely be the French, especially their current leadership, under Chirac.

Wow! A must-read!

Regardless of one's views on the Iraq war (I'm undecided), most Americans (war supporters and war protestors alike) were puzzled by France's ardently vicious, even hysterical, opposition to the war in Iraq. At first, the initial opposition just seemed rooted in the common anti-American sentiment found in France/Europe. However, after a few days, and after Mr. Chirac devoted all his time to seeking out allies for this opposition, many started to wonder WHY the French government was taking it so personally! No government would go this much out of their way just to promote "peace." Can anyone really believe that France and Mr. Chirac would go on such an intense campaign against the war simply because they believed in the war was morally wrong? C'mon! There had to be more to this... This "more" is what Mr. Timmerman lays out, with irrefutable evidence, in his book. I found the book to be an outstanding testament to what France's true motivations were -- not peace, but rather greed. France did not want to see Saddam deposed because that would ruin it's oh-so-lucrative multi-billion dollar deals with the dictator's regime. In other words, France felt that allowing Americans to depose a dictator who unspeakably tortured people and, many argue, posed a threat to global security, came in second to its greed for oil and money. As Timmerman explains, France/Chirac had a cozy, quid-pro-quo arrangement with one another which was incredibly lucrative for both: France would sell Iraq top-secret military techology and weapons in exchange for Iraq's oil and money. Putting aside the fact that selling military technology and weapons to a ruthless dictator and world-safety-hazard like Hussein is highly questionable, what's even worse is the way the European media and Mr. Chirac refused to admit that this lucrative relationship was France's actual reason for opposing the war! Ironically, many uninformed, unread individuals claimed AMERICA was going to war with Iraq for oil, yet it seems it was Mr. Chiraq and the French who were the oil-mongers... Mr. Timmerman's book gives the reader all the facts he or she is looking for, and then some. This book stands as a testament to the fact that, as truth seekers, we must always search for the true motivations behind a government's stance.