You Could Have Heard a Pin Drop...

I got this in an email and decided to share it with you, since it has such an important message... just go ahead and read for yourself.

At a time when the president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.

  

 JFK ' S 
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60 ' s when 
DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO.  DeGaule said he wanted all US  military out of France as soon as possible. 
 Rusk responded,

"Does that include the thousands who are buried there?"
 
 DeGuale 
did not respond. 

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 
 
When in England ,

at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ' empire building ' by George Bush.
 
 He answered by saying,

"Over the years, the United States has sent many of 
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom 
beyond our borders.  The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not 
return."
 

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 There was a conference in France

where a number of international engineers 
were taking part, including French and American.  During a break, 
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims.  What does he intend to do, bomb them?"
 
A Boeing engineer

stood up and replied quietly:  "Our carriers have three 
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are 
nuclear powered and can supply emergency  electrical power to 
shore facilities; they have three  cafeterias with the capacity to 
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck.  We have eleven such ships;

how many does France have?"

 

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 A U.S. Navy Admiral

was attending a naval conference that included 
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French 
Navies  At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries..  

Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"
 Without hesitating,

the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the 
Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German." 

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 AND 
THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
 Robert Whiting,

an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.

At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport

in his carry on.

 "You 
have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked 
 sarcastically.
 Mr. Whiting

admitted that he had been to France  
previously.
 "Then 
you should know enough to have your passport ready."
 The American said,

"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

 "Impossible.. 
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France !"
 The American senior

gave the Frenchman a long hard look.  Then he 
quietly explained, "Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchman to show a passport to."
You 
could have heard a pin drop.