Cultural Imaging of the French “Other”

This chapter explores the roots of American francophobia into the early twentieth century. Historically, Americans had long been cautious of conniving French diplomats, alarmed at France’s sexual and racial permissiveness, and dismissive of France’s supposedly weak republican system of government. Set against the backdrop of Social Darwinism, intense nationalism, Anglo-Saxonism, and conceptions of a racial hierarchy, the parent generation of the future men of the Kennedy administration began to ascribe hard, negative attributes to France and the French that they passed down to their offspring. By casting the French as overly emotional, excessively proud, vain, cruel, conservative, backward, and effeminate, these elites were better able to rationalize their own perceived racial superiority and legacy as inheritors of sound British traditions. This chapter sets out to explain the evolution of American views of France with the intention of illustrating the perceptions and stereotypes that were common currency during Kennedy’s formative years. The candid notations in Kennedy’s 1937 diary from his summer trip to Europe—during which he spent several weeks in France—clearly illustrate that he had absorbed many of the popular francophobic themes in circulation during the interwar years.