France and the Submarine Deal

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021 By Jordan Davidson

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

On Friday, September 17th, France pulled its ambassadors from the U.S. and Australia after Australia ditched its existing submarine deal with France in favor of a U.S. partnership.

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the U.S. struck a deal with Australia and the United Kingdom that administration officials said would provide Australia with the “technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.”

It’s a move that, even though it hurt an ally, the administration claimed was necessary to push back on China’s desire to control the South China Sea.

“We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region, and how it may evolve,” Biden said. “Because the future of each of our nations and indeed the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead.”

“It is believed to be the first time France has withdrawn ambassadors from the two countries,” BBC reported, referring to the United States and Australia. “French diplomats in Washington had already cancelled a gala to celebrate ties between the US and France in retaliation.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the retaliatory decision to remove ambassadors, which was ordered by President Emmanuel Macron, comes in the wake of “unacceptable behavior between allies and partners whose consequences directly affect the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe.”

He also said it feels like a “stab in the back” after Australia canceled its roughly $40 billion deal with France for diesel-electric submarines in favor of another deal with the United States.

“We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed,” Le Drian said. “This is not done between allies.”

Now folks, if you will remember, it was just a week ago that I stated one of my greatest concerns about the mess in Afghanistan was what comes next and what message have we sent to our allies worldwide.

When we should be doing damage control from the Afghanistan pull out and sending a message that we will continue to support our allies, we have now managed to alienate one of our longest and best allies in Europe.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at the history of US/French relations.

Before Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, America’s Continental Congress created a secret committee. Its members were authorized to seek help from sympathetic European countries who could aid the cause of American Independence from Britain.

The Committee was formed in November of 1775.

France was interested in helping the Colonies. Among other things, aiding the Americans was a way for France to pay-back Britain for using American Colonials (like George Washington) to defeat French claims to North-American territory during the Seven-Year (“French and Indian”) War.

The result of that war caused France to lose all of Canada and all of its claim to the land in what is now the US, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River.

In the early fall of 1776—when Benjamin Franklin was still the most well-known American in the world—the Second Continental Congress chose him to negotiate with France.

The now-aging Franklin was especially popular in France where his groundbreaking ideas about lightning and electricity had been tested by Frenchmen.

Franklin traveled to France with his two grandsons, 17-year-old William Temple Franklin and 17-year-old Benjamin Franklin Bache.

Although France was already helping the American cause, Franklin asked for more. He met with the Comte De Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, on the 28th of December, 1776. Franklin wanted a Treaty, between France and America, but France was initially reluctant.

Would a treaty put France in a difficult situation with Britain? After all, why wouldn’t  England’s King George III and Parliament view a French agreement with America as a direct confrontation by France against Britain?

And … what if America lost the war for independence? An American victory, by December of 1776, was far from certain. Among other issues, General Washington had lost the Battle of Long Island. If America lost the war, would that bankrupt the French government?

Franklin continued to keep the American cause of independence alive, for the next 2 years.

Things changed, in favor of a French-American treaty, after the Patriots defeated the Redcoats at the Battle of Saratoga (in New York). The negotiators signed the Treaty of Alliance on February 6, 1778.

King Louis XVI—whose approval was needed for the Treaty to become effective—agreed to the terms the following month.

The Treaty of Alliance with France included a term of mutual defense in the event that Britain attacked either France or America.

Another term prevented either country from seeking a separate peace agreement with Britain.

Although Ben Franklin made many significant contributions to his new country, one of the most-important was negotiating this Treaty of Alliance.

 France was a military power and her resources were invaluable during the final years of America’s Revolutionary War.

Many historians believe that America may not have won the Battle of Yorktown—the final battle in the long war for independence—without French help.

Now I would be remiss if I did not include something about the Marquis De Lafayette.

The Marquis de Lafayette was born on September 6, 1757, in Chavaniac, France. He served the Continental Army with distinction during the American Revolutionary War, providing tactical leadership while securing vital resources from France.

Lafayette’s father was killed in battle during the Seven Years War, and his mother and grandfather both died in 1770, leaving Lafayette with a vast inheritance. He joined the Royal Army the following year.

Inspired by stories of the colonists’ struggles against British oppression, Lafayette sailed to the newly declared United States in 1777 to join the uprising.

He was initially rejected by colonial leaders, but he impressed them with his passion, and willingness to serve for free, and was named a major-general in the Continental Army.

His first major combat duty came during the September 1777 Battle of Brandywine, when he was shot in the leg while helping to organize a retreat.

General George Washington requested doctors to take special care of Lafayette, igniting a strong bond between the two that lasted until Washington’s death.

Following a winter in Valley Forge with Washington, Lafayette improved his credentials as an intelligent leader while helping to draw more French resources to the colonial side.

After traveling to France to press Louis XVI for more aid, Lafayette assumed increased military responsibility upon his return to battle.

As commander of the Virginia Continental forces in 1781, he helped keep British Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis’s army pinned at Yorktown, Virginia, while divisions led by Washington and France’s Comte de Rochambeau surrounded the British and forced a surrender in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

After returning to his home country in December 1781, Lafayette rejoined the French army and organized trade agreements with Thomas Jefferson, the American ambassador to France.

So, there you have the beginning of our relationship with France. The French did indeed fight in the Continental Army alongside our forefathers against the British.

In turn, the Americans were early supporters of the first French republic. A Frenchman drew the plan for America’s capital city. An American, Thomas Paine, helped draft the French Declaration of Rights.

Thomas Jefferson bought the entire middle portion of the US, the very land you listeners are currently standing on, from Napoleon in 1803, in what the Library of Congress refers to as “the greatest real estate deal in history”.

Jefferson got everything from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains for a cool $15m (about $.04/acre).

Let’s not forget that it was the French who gave us our very symbol of freedom. The Statue of Liberty. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted it; Gustav Eiffel engineered it; and the French public paid for it. It was dedicated in October 1886.

Next came the World Wars. Americans think the United States single-handedly liberated Paris in the second world war.

Americans also think France exhibited simple cowardice by surrendering so quickly to the Nazis, failing to appreciate their loses in WWI, which killed one out of every two Frenchmen between the ages of 22 and 32 just twenty-one years earlier.

During WWI we played Wal Mart and made a fortune selling arms and supplies to Europe while they saw the casualty rate hit 38 million people.

It is no wonder the French surrendered to the Nazis when faced by Hitler’s overwhelming forces.

Has our relationship always been good with France? Of course not. We fought them is a quasi war in 1800. They failed to support our efforts in our conflict with Iraq.

But through it all, France has remained a major player on the world stage.

Regardless of our past differences, they are a key ally, and the recent submarine deal, which France refers to as a “Stab in the Back”, is just another reason why our allies on the world stage are having serious doubts about whether or not the US can be trusted.

So, France lost a lucrative deal to build submarines. Does it really matter?

From a notional defense standpoint, yes. France considers the Asia-Pacific region to be of key strategic and economic importance, with 1.65 million French citizens on islands including La Réunion, New Caledonia, Mayotte and French Polynesia.

In the statement on Wednesday, Mr Biden reaffirmed the importance of French and European engagement in the Asia-Pacific region

Washington also played along by admitting things could have been handled differently, giving a nod to European defense, and agreeing to boost support in North Africa. The French ambassador has said he will return to Washington next week. They’re talking again, but much trust has gone.

Again, the timing of the new deal is significant. It comes just a month after the US exit from Afghanistan, when doubts have been raised in multiple quarters about US commitment in the region.

Britain too is eager to be more involved in the Asia-Pacific area especially after its exit from the European Union and Australia is increasingly concerned about China’s influence.

“It is a ‘big deal’ because this really shows that all three nations are drawing a line in the sand to start and counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aggressive moves in the Indo-Pacific,” Guy Boekenstein, senior director of defense and national security at Australia’s Northern Territory government, told the BBC.

The agreement involves the sharing of information and technology in a number of areas including intelligence and quantum technology as well as the acquisition of cruise missiles.

But the nuclear submarines are key. They are to be built in Adelaide in South Australia and will involve the US and the UK providing consultation on technology for their production.

“A nuclear submarine has enormous defense capabilities and therefore ramifications for the region. Only six countries in the world have nuclear submarines. They are a really powerful deterrent capability without giving them nuclear weapons,” Michael Shoebridge, director of defense, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said.

Nuclear submarines are much more stealthy than conventional ones – they operate quietly, are able to move easily and are harder to detect.

At least eight submarines will be supported, although it’s not clear when they will be deployed. The process will take longer due to a lack of nuclear infrastructure in Australia.

They will not be nuclear armed, only powered with nuclear reactors.

“Let me be clear: Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,” Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

So it appears the Australians made the right decision in cancelling the contract with France for the production of diesel submarines.

However, once again, we have to look to the current administration as to how it was handled. When the announcement came about the deal, the French were said to be totally surprised.

I think they realize that nuclear subs will be a true asset to the defense of the region, but one can’t help but wonder why they, as an ally were left totally in the dark and treated like a third world country.

Alliances are a tricky business. You cannot simply cast one alliance aside for another, It is a recipe for disaster and history has proven that time and time again.

The Afghan withdrawal, the French submarine deal, even recently the debate in the House about re-supplying Israel with missiles needed for their Iron Dome System. All of these issues are being watched on the world stage.

I leave you with this one question. If you were currently living in another country, would you trust the United States as an ally?