These are good
JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in
the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO.
DeGaulle said he wanted all US
military out of France as
soon as possible.
Rusk responded, "Does that include
those who are buried here?"
DeGaulle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin
Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our
plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building'
by George Bush.
He answered by saying,
"Over the years, the United States has sent many
of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight
for freedom
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we
have ever asked for
in return is enough to bury those that
did not
return."
You
could have heard a pin
drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a conference in France
where a number of international
engineers
were taking part, including French and American.
During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into
the room saying, "Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt
Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to
Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he
intend
to do, bomb them?"
A Boeing engineer
stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have
three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred
people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency
electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three
cafeterias with the capacity to
feed 3,000 people three
meals a day, they can produce several thousand
gallons of
fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half
a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and
injured to and
from their flight deck. We have eleven such
ships;
how many does France
have?"
You
could have heard a pin
drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A U..S. Navy
Admiral
was attending a naval conference that
included
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian,
Australian and French
Navies At a cocktail reception, he
found himself standing with a large
group of officers that
included personnel from most of those countries..
Everyone
was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but
a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas
Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only
English. He then asked, "Why is it that
we always have to
speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking
French?"
Without hesitating,
The American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because
the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it
so you wouldn't
have to speak
German."
You
could have heard a pin
drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by
plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his
passport in his carry on.
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked
sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible…Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then
he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on
D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single
Frenchmen to show a passport to."
You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If
you are proud to be an
American, pass this on! If not, delete it.
I am proud to be of this land,
AMERICA
