Sent to me in email from a friend

JFK'S

Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when Charles

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.







~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





AND

THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...





Robert Whiting,

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.