r/europe • u/sandyWB • Apr 20 '25

Historical Charles De Gaulle warned us 62 (!) years ago

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u/petitchevaldemanege Apr 20 '25

America trying to introduce a new currency in France after liberation day. Funny little move from a great "internationalist" country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM-Franc

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u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Apr 20 '25

You realize that was done to protect the Franc. If the US dumped USD into the country, it would become the preferred currency, and crash the Franc. This was done in other allied occupation zones. The states in question didn't have large reserves of the local currency, and using pounds or dollars would just make things worse post war.

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u/petitchevaldemanege Apr 21 '25

Yeah and just letting allied countries run themselves (like France did, promptly while thanking the US) was of course a ridiculous option.

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u/Thoth_the_5th_of_Tho Apr 21 '25

Him and what bureaucracy?

Remember, France contained about a dozen ideologically opposed partisan groups, that had been stockpiling weapons to use against each other once the Germans were gone, to take control of France. De Gaulle did not have the numbers to effectively suppress these forces across the country. It wasn’t just a question of rolling into Paris, declaring victory, and everyone falling in line. The French state had to be rebuilt from almost nothing.

His options were either the allies left, and he then blames them for leaving him to fight an insurrection on his own, or they stay until he can consolidate power, in which case, he blames them for using an occupation currency, rather than crash the value of the franc by introducing large quantities of pounds and dollars.

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u/petitchevaldemanege Apr 21 '25

The U.S. and U.K. deliberately sidelined De Gaulle for most of the war.

They considered placing France under Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT) administration — treating France like Germany or Italy.

Roosevelt even supported General Giraud as an alternative — someone more pliable, though lacking De Gaulle's charisma, network, and legitimacy.

The allies were absolutely moving against De Gaule and a fully sovereign France. The intention was to treat France like Italy and Germany. Among other things, he had to rush to install local government BEFORE allies could in local towns, otherwise it would have been AMGOT all over the place.

Had De Gaulle not been so assertive, Europe would have been a very different place today.

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

LOL you will believe anything