American president Donald Trump has threatened to pull thousands of American troops out of Germany, with other European military bases potentially following suit. This is not an issue in France, however, which has no US military presence on its soil – here’s why.
The reason for the lack of US military presence in France can be summed up in three words – Charles De Gaulle.
In the aftermath of World War II France, just like Germany, the UK and its other European neighbours, had a substantial military presence. American troops landed with Allied forces in Normandy on June 6th 1944, and began the long, slow push through France and towards Berlin.
Once the war ended in 1945, hundreds of thousands of American troops stayed in Europe – initially helping with rebuilding and later settling into a more permanent military presence as the Iron Curtain fell and the Cold War began.
Although Germany had the largest US military presence, France too had a significant number of American troops throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
But in 1959, France’s WWII resistance leader Charles De Gaulle became president, and right from the beginning of his mandate, he insisted that “the defence of France must be French”.
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His focus on rebuilding post-war France as a global power consistently set him at odds with US leaders.
De Gaulle ensured that France developed its own nuclear weapons, rather than – as the UK did – taking up the American offer of shared nuclear technology. To this day, France is the only fully unilateral nuclear power in Europe.
He was also keen that, 20 years after the end of the war, American troops should leave France.
This met with considerable opposition in Washington. President Lyndon Johnson – who hated De Gaulle – reportedly told his Secretary of State Dean Rusk to ask De Gaulle: “Do you want us to move American cemeteries out of France as well?” – although it should be noted that there are no independent witnesses to this conversation.
De Gaulle had to partially withdraw France from NATO in 1967 to achieve his objective, but eventually he succeeded, and the last American soldiers departed in 1968.
Since then, no American troops have been permanently stationed on French soil, although France does sometimes allow American forces to use its airbases.
France does co-operate closely with the UK on military matters, and the Lancaster House treaty of 2010 establishes close connections and sharing agreements between the two countries’ forces – including small numbers of British troops stationed on French bases, although usually in liaison roles.
