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"Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia"
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US National Security Advisor, now Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, spring 2003. Alleged response when asked by aides what would be the USA's policy towards countries that worked to build an international coalition against ending Saddam Hussein's rule.
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"The confrontation between America and Europe reveals not so much a rapprochement as a distortion, an unbridgeable rift. There isn't just a gap between us, but a whole chasm of modernity… "
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Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist. "Astral America", 1986. This is what passes for philosophy in France, ho, ho, ho.
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"I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version."
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Don Delillo (b. 1926), US author. Spoken by Owen Brademas, in "The Names", chapter 1, 1982.
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"The entry first of Great Britain and then of the other states will completely change the series of adjustments, agreements, compensations and regulations already established, between the Six… the cohesion of its members would not hold for long and in the end there would appear a colossal Atlantic Community under American dependence and leadership, which would soon swallow up the European Community. That is not at all what France wanted to do and what France is doing, which is strictly a European construction."
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Charles de Gaulle, President of France 1959 - 1969. Part of his justification for vetoing Britain's entry into the EEC in 1963. Well that's pretty clear then - his football, he gets to pick the teams.
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"It's a complex fate, being an American, and one of the responsibilities it entails is fighting against a superstitious valuation of Europe."
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Henry James (1843-1916), Author. Letter to editor Charles Eliot Norton, 4 February 1872.
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"I know too that it is a maxim with us, and I think it a wise one, not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of Europe."
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Thomas Jefferson, US President. Letter, 21 December 1787.
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"In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by Power. In America ... charters of power [are] granted by liberty."
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James Madison (1751-1836), U.S. president 1809-1817. 'Charters', 8 January 1792.
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"Germany and France represent 'old Europe'. But you look at vast numbers of other countries in Europe. They're not with France and Germany on this, they're with the United States. And NATO's expansion in recent years means the center of gravity is shifting to the east."
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Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary. 22 Jan 2003, Washington Press Conference.
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"For a significant chunk of the British establishment and for most of the governing class on the Continent, if it's a choice between an American-led West or no West at all they'll take the latter."
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Mark Steyn, pundit, columnist. Telegraph, 30 December 2003. Sadly no exaggeration.
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"My policy has been … to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none."
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George Washington, US President. Letter, 1795.
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"My ardent desire is … to keep the United States free from political connexions with every other Country. To see that they may be independent of all, and under the influence of none."
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George Washington, US President. Letter, 1795.
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If you have an authenticated quotation on Europe, the EEC or the EU that you think should be listed here, then email me .
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