The French are known or rumored not to like Americans (or Germans for that matter). Once, I was 21 years old, I sat in a French restaurant in some city I don’t remember waiting 45 minutes to be acknowledged by any waiter. The place was busy, tables came and went all around us, but the two of us, an American and a German, seemed to be invisible. We left after 45 minutes. We never even knew what gave us away as non-French.

Here is a story:

JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 1960ies when DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO.  DeGaule said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded: “Does that include those who are buried here?”

DeGaule did not respond.