Could France have been a side of its own during the Cold War, much like how the PRC was distinct from the Eastern Bloc after the Sino-Soviet Split?
I don't think France have the economy to to have a major space programe during the early day of the cold war. But for a France on it's own you need something that destroy the USA-France relationship for a long time, and it could have serious economic repercution.
But how different from ATL it could be? Didn't they pull out from NATO in 1966 and follow a very independent international policy since then?
But how different from ATL it could be? Didn't they pull out from NATO in 1966 and follow a very independent international policy since then?
^^
OK guys, but if we sent France further apart from US, I see only open hostility. And where France would act? In Africa? In OTL, they already did this. Maybe they could try to develop a closer relation with South Africa? Meddling in Latin America?
Open hostility.
Sorry, it's not more 2003. you should stop thinking about american and french relations as always hostile...
And I will say now, that recent history proved that the French were right... The real war was in Afghanistan and the USA lost it by going to Irak...
Why France will bother with South Africa ???
Or Latin America ???
Did the French had interests there ??? No !!!
If you looked at french interventions in Africa, it was always in support of western friendly governments, of course most of them being autocratic dictature. French fought a quasi war in Tchad against the Lybians and when the British and American lost a civil plane in Lockerbie, the French lost also a civil plane in an lybian sponsored attacks.
In Africa, iin case of civil wars or military coup, the French were always here to protect every western expatriates. The USA didn't need to send US Marines to protect their citizens in Africa, french soldiers were here for that...
The hot zone of Africa were always in english speaking countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone), or ex english colonies (Soudan), or ex belgium colonies, Zaire, Rwanda...
Only in Ivory Coast, there is a civil war who could turn to a genocidal war but it was stopped when the french destroy Gagbo airforce severals years ago... But until the madman Gagbo took power, Ivory Coast was rather a model of economic development in Africa...
No, I had 1960-70's Franco-American relations in mind. France left NATO, hasn't supported almost any American initiative on the period and had a relatively independent policy. So, that's my point: if the relation is even more distant than OTL, we could have only open hostility.