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207523256
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Press Release, Toast of President Harry S. Truman in Reply to the Toast by President of the French Republic Vincent Auriol
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207523256
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document
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Press Release, Toast of President Harry S. Truman in Reply to the Toast by President of the French Republic Vincent Auriol
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President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
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207523256
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30
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1951-03-30
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3
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1951
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I O A S I OF THE PRESIDENT
IN REPLY TO THE TOAST OF
PRESIDENT VINCENT AURIOL OF FRANCE
FRENCH EMBASSY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
MARCH 30, 1951, 10.15 p.m.,e.s.t.
Mr. President, Madame Auriol: I am deeply
touched by the statements of the President of the great
French Republic. He has made it perfectly plain to you,
as he has already made it plain to me, that France is
forever our friend, that France will do its part in our
obligation under the Atlantic Treaty to maintain the
peace of the world.
160 years ago or more France took a chance on
a young Nation being born. France did not. lose by that
chance. In the last two generations we have shown our
friendship for your great Republic, which stands for
liberty, equality and fraternity -- which is what we stand
for, too, liberty, equality and fraternity. Mr. President,
I am just as sure as I stand here that the United States
of America will never forget its friendship for France.
I don't know whether any of you have ever
understood exactly what the First World War and the Second
World War meant to France. France lost about a million,
700 thous and men killed in action in the First World War.
If we had lost in that s ame proportion, it would have been
about 5-1/2 millions. France had about 2 million men
wounded and disabled. Had it been in the s ame proportion
for the United States, it would have been 6-1/2 millions,
In this last number two war, France had more
than 800 thous and killed and 187 thous and, I think, if I
am not mistaken, murdered after it was all over -- after
hostilities ceased in France.
If we had had the whole Mississippi Valley
destroyed, every city from New Orleans to Minneapolis and
a hundred miles on each side, we would have been probably
ARCHIVEGAND
comparatively speaking -- in the condition that France
was in after the First World War, and after the Second
World War.
We can't appreciate it, because that did not
happen to us; and we can't appreciate what happened to
Britain, we can't appreciate what happened to Holland,
Belgium, and Norway, and all those countries of Central
Europe that have been devastated and the people taken to
slave labor camps because they believed in liberty.
Now, our objective, our whole objective, is
peace in the world. That is what we are trying to attain.
And to attain peace in the world, we want to raise that
iron curtain, and make France, Britain, Belgium, Holland
and Norway, and those countries who stayed with us through
the fight, free and equal with the rest of mankind in the
world, so that they will not suffer from fear of being
overrun once more in another generation.
That is all we are working for. That is the
objective of the Marshall Plan. That is the objective of
the Atlantic Pact, that is the objective of the Western
Hemisphere Pact, the Ministers of which are now meeting
here in Washington to continue to implement the policy
which we are trying to pursue.
Mr. President, it gives me a great deal of
pleasure to Toast His Excellency the President of France,
Madame Auriol, and the great Republic of France.
//