I think many underestimate allies bombing campaign, which destroyed Germans industrial complex, oil industry and air forces (75% of aircraft were destroyed by allies, many on the airbases).
It also dramatically underselling the North African campaign which tied Axis logistics and what little strategic lift capacity they had, at some point 80-90% of the long range aviation and most importantly fuel was dedicated to try and win Africa.
Both Germany and Italy have expended significant resources in Africa and lost a significant amount of personnel and more importantly materiel over the 3 years it lasted.
I can only speculate that it's a combination of several factors: 1. older French people told stories of how Americans freed their cities in France (because US was on Germany's West front) 2. USSR had become a big bad evil with the Cold War 3. US and French movies mostly focus on the fights the US/France did.
Yeah, this article's awful. I was expecting, you know, coverage of afore-written campaign. Instead it just notes that French attitudes changed, then attempts to refute that changed attitude. The "why", which the headline implies will be the focus, isn't just not the focus, but is absent.
> it never actually addresses why the French changed their minds!
I'll take a try as a French.
* Our exiled government was located in the UK, which as strong ties to the US
* France never saw any Russian troops, and a big event of the war was the Normandy landings
* We have the same societal model. Even though the state participation in the economy is one of the highest of the world (which would make us more communists that Russia or China), our system is deeply rooted in property and capitalism. We do have the "American Dream" of an individual making it to the top, rather than China's "Harmonious Society"[1] model. We love democracy.
* France is in NATO, and Russia was seen as menacing. When France decided to get the bomb, here is what De Gaulle had to say: "Within ten years, we shall have the means to kill 80 million Russians. I truly believe that one does not light-heartedly attack people who are able to kill 80 million Russians, even if one can kill 800 million French, that is if there were 800 million French"
* France is culturally closer to the US
* France does a lot more business with the US, benefited from the Marshall Plan.
* The Hollywood machine has won. Moving-making and distribution are expensive, and this might be a sector where the moats are deep and the winner takes all. With that the US army has an extensive movie sponsorship program, where they won't give money but they'll happily grant access to an aircraft carrier. Also, the Marshall plan mandated that at least 30% of movies projections had to come from the US.
One thing though about the cultural closeness. It really depends on the generation.
For young people Russia is an unknown land they do not hear about (well, until the war). They are closer to the US culture, but not that specifically - I think it is difficult to speak of a culture in their c'est, it is very international and oriented to internet.
Older folks were actually quite close to Russian culture, at least the idealized one. Not that much to the US one.
But, more to the point, it never actually addresses why the French changed their minds!