40 Years Ago In Time

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Long before the dispute over Iraq, the U.S. had problems with another French President, CHARLES DE GAULLE. The imposing former war hero was the subject of a 1963 TIME cover shortly after he upset his allies by casting the lone vote to keep Britain out of the Common Market:

For 20 years the U.S. has been accustomed to lead[ing] the free world, and in that time Western Europe rose from the ashes behind a shield of U.S. men and money. France itself has received $9.5 billion in outright aid and $1.8 billion in loans since 1945. There have of course been disputes and differences of opinion, but until last week, no direct challenge of U.S. leadership. What the U.S. now faced was a proposal that Europe rally round France to create a third force in the world capable of dealing independently with both the U.S. and Russia ... It was a crowning irony that De Gaulle's effort to give Europe a new voice is precisely what the U.S. has been trying to do ever since World War II ... He argues, "It is intolerable for a great state that her fate be left to the decisions and action of another state, however friendly she may be." --TIME, Feb. 8, 1963