Anti-French sentiment in the United States

The Patriot victory in the American Revolutionary War, which resulted in the Thirteen Colonies declaring their independence from British rule as the United States, was heavily dependent on French assistance.

Historians Pierre Bourdieu and Stanley Hoffmann have argued that the root of anti-French sentiment in the U.S. dates back to 18th-century American perceptions of French sociopolitical systems as threats to republicanism in the United States.

[6] It is a reference to the defeat of the French Army against Nazi Germany during World War II, the ensuing Armistice of 22 June 1940 being often misconstrued as an unconditional surrender.

While other nations also opposed the US proposals (notably Russia; China;[7] and traditional US allies, such as Germany, Canada, and Belgium), France received particularly ferocious criticism.

The term came to prominence in 2003 when the then Republican Chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Bob Ney, renamed the menu item in three Congressional cafeterias in response to France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq.