AHC: Entente-American Split

During the Cold War the French did what they could to avoid being under the American thumb, whereas the British aligned strongly with the Americans.

How could there have been a sort of Entente-American split where the British and French go their own way and the Americans thus focus more on Germany and the Low Countries as their basis for European resistance to the Soviets.

Suez seems like a good PoD, though I think earlier actions would be needed to enable the British and French to play ball harder with the US during that crisis. Differing economic policies by the British in the immediate post-war period perhaps?

How could an Anglo-French Entente measure up against the US?
 
If the split happens before the Marshall Plan is implemented this could become a Soviet victory scenario of some kind. Without aid from the US Western Europe could fall to communism.
 
During the Cold War the French did what they could to avoid being under the American thumb, whereas the British aligned strongly with the Americans.

How could there have been a sort of Entente-American split where the British and French go their own way and the Americans thus focus more on Germany and the Low Countries as their basis for European resistance to the Soviets.

Suez seems like a good PoD, though I think earlier actions would be needed to enable the British and French to play ball harder with the US during that crisis. Differing economic policies by the British in the immediate post-war period perhaps?

How could an Anglo-French Entente measure up against the US?

There was an Anglo-French Union, to operate like a Confederacy from what I understand, proposed after Suez. Such an entity could be strong enough to do what you wish. Problem is in the long term the Low Countries and West Germany will naturally gravitate towards it; perhaps an early EU-like entity, with joint military command and a combined nuclear arsenal to deter the Soviets in the face of a general American pullback from most of Europe.
 
During the Cold War the French did what they could to avoid being under the American thumb, whereas the British aligned strongly with the Americans.

How could there have been a sort of Entente-American split where the British and French go their own way and the Americans thus focus more on Germany and the Low Countries as their basis for European resistance to the Soviets.

Suez seems like a good PoD, though I think earlier actions would be needed to enable the British and French to play ball harder with the US during that crisis. Differing economic policies by the British in the immediate post-war period perhaps?

How could an Anglo-French Entente measure up against the US?
Could your scenario work if only France or only Britiain left the Entente?
 

ar-pharazon

Banned
I do like the idea of the Western Europeans banding together to be neither under American hegemony or soviet occupation.

At the same time the US would not like this and neither would the Soviets.

If the European powers band together and manage to hold on at least to some of their colonies the process of decolonization could be delayed-leading to an interesting situation where the US and the Soviets try to wear down and pick apart the european alliance while denying the other greater reach and influence.
 
The easiest way to get this to happen is for the French government to agree to a Franco-British Union instead of agreeing to the Armistice with Germany. As a result there is no Vichy France, or at least a less secure puppet state. After the Axis is defeated the Franco-British Union will be able to attempt to keep control of their combined empires and as a result we may get a Suez Crisis where the Franco-British Union refuse to back down to American pressure, resulting in a third camp during the Cold War.
 
The easiest way to get this to happen is for the French government to agree to a Franco-British Union instead of agreeing to the Armistice with Germany. As a result there is no Vichy France, or at least a less secure puppet state. After the Axis is defeated the Franco-British Union will be able to attempt to keep control of their combined empires and as a result we may get a Suez Crisis where the Franco-British Union refuse to back down to American pressure, resulting in a third camp during the Cold War.

Alternatively, the groveling and permeant surrender of French Soverginity to Britain hits the French people harder than the relative autonomy of Vichy, and turns public opinion in France and among the colonial administration firmly against Perfidious Albion.
 
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