This isn't as radical a thing as US media would have you believe. France wasn't a member of NATO for most of NATO's existence. The short version is that Charles de Gaulle thought being in NATO was to be a pawn of the US military industrial and pulled France out in the early 60s, and it didn't rejoin until 2009. France has it's own nukes so it never felt it needed any more "protection" than that.
This isn't as radical a thing as US media would have you believe. France wasn't a member of NATO for most of NATO's existence. The short version is that Charles de Gaulle thought being in NATO was to be a pawn of the US military industrial and pulled France out in the early 60s, and it didn't rejoin until 2009. France has it's own nukes so it never felt it needed any more "protection" than that.
Charles de Gaulle continues to impress me.
Charles de Gaulle continues to impress me.
His nose was impressive. That's about the only impressive thing about him.
His nose was impressive. That's about the only impressive thing about him.
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