On April 19, 1963, in an address to the French people, Charles de Gaulle made a statement that has proven prescient 62 years later:
France must maintain its independence in the Atlantic alliance and have nuclear weapons, especially since there is no proof that in the event of an attack by the adversary, the United States would directly strike the Soviet Union with atomic weapons at the risk of mutual annihilation, the doctrine of "graduated response" which now prevails in the United States implies on the contrary that only conventional weapons be used, which will make Western and Central Europe a simple battlefield for which the European countries would provide the infantry.
The proof for his statement has arrived.
America is no longer defending America in the way it once claimed, but has instead made clear that it will defend Putin’s Russia at the cost of Europe. The U.S. has not withdrawn its forces from the continent, but its political leadership has signaled that the American military presence in Europe is no longer a reliable deterrent.
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