Opinion: Good News & Bad News from France
In early March, while meeting with French officials in Libya, I suggested that if President Chirac wanted to repair the damage done to U.S.-French relations by French behavior last year, he might start by “putting a new face on French diplomacy.”
Just three weeks later, Chirac announced that he was replacing foreign minister Dominique de Villepin with the relatively unknown, but pro-American, Michel Barnier.
Known for his arrogance and love for grandstanding, Villepin was reviled in America for having sandbagged U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations last year, a disgraceful episode I have detailed in my new book, The French Betrayal of America.
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