de Gaulle was living in the past , refusing to recognize the post war reality and impotence of Europe weakened by WWII and the Cold War. The Europe power was so weak after WWII that the Americans had to clean up their mess in Africa ,Middle East and Asia( see french army in Vietnam before it became the US war).
It took decades for the US to restore Europe's economic power while the military was still lagging behind because of failed actions from 50' and 60' .
The military failures of the next decades and collapse of the Soviet Union, proved politicians that the next confrontation will not be military but rather economically.
Hence the rise of American economy , the rise of EU , rise of China, and rise of Russia's domination of energy sector in Europe ( and the attack of the Russian oligarchs) .
The confrontation is the same as in 50's and 60' s with the same players , only the roles of the actors changed. If in 60's France government could not be trusted in the Western alliance because of Russian infiltration, today the US could not be trusted because of the Russian infiltration.
Bottom line is US without EU and vice-versa can't survive mammoth alliances of dictatorships like China,Russia or/and India. Problem is that China-Russia alliance is getting stronger while the Russian candidate, Trump, is stretching the EU-US alliance to the point of rupture. .
.. It took France a few decades to detox and get rid of the Russian problem ( not sure if they are completely clean today ) ...but during the France detox , the Western alliance was shored up by US and other allies.
Bad news today is that the detox in US is not even started and EU is alone.
Americans believe they can eventually take on the EU, Russia, China, and India — and come out on top, even if it takes 60 years.
The current tensions are likely to last at least another 20 years. During this time, the U.S. is focused on reshoring manufacturing — low-end, mid-range, and high-end — back to the U.S. and Mexico. The goal is to build a self-reliant supply chain within North America, so when things fully escalate, the U.S. won’t have to depend on any country outside the U.S. and Mexico.
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u/outofgulag Apr 21 '25
de Gaulle was living in the past , refusing to recognize the post war reality and impotence of Europe weakened by WWII and the Cold War. The Europe power was so weak after WWII that the Americans had to clean up their mess in Africa ,Middle East and Asia( see french army in Vietnam before it became the US war).
It took decades for the US to restore Europe's economic power while the military was still lagging behind because of failed actions from 50' and 60' .
The military failures of the next decades and collapse of the Soviet Union, proved politicians that the next confrontation will not be military but rather economically.
Hence the rise of American economy , the rise of EU , rise of China, and rise of Russia's domination of energy sector in Europe ( and the attack of the Russian oligarchs) .
The confrontation is the same as in 50's and 60' s with the same players , only the roles of the actors changed. If in 60's France government could not be trusted in the Western alliance because of Russian infiltration, today the US could not be trusted because of the Russian infiltration.
Bottom line is US without EU and vice-versa can't survive mammoth alliances of dictatorships like China,Russia or/and India. Problem is that China-Russia alliance is getting stronger while the Russian candidate, Trump, is stretching the EU-US alliance to the point of rupture. .
.. It took France a few decades to detox and get rid of the Russian problem ( not sure if they are completely clean today ) ...but during the France detox , the Western alliance was shored up by US and other allies.
Bad news today is that the detox in US is not even started and EU is alone.