French Pooh-Pooh U.S. Military’s Preoccupation With Sex

Maj. Bruno Mignot says he has a lot of time for Americans. They gave the French a hand in World War I; they helped out again in World War 11. They built up what he concedes is a “very big power” in what he views as “a very short time.” But the recent upheavals over sex in the U.S. military have left him deeply perplexed.

“For a French officer, it is absolutely astounding to think that adultery can lead to dismissal from the army,” the major said. “What does adultery have to do with being a B-52 pilot or a competent general?”

The peccadilloes and problems of a succession of United States officers have tended to confirm an old French view that Americans are overgrown children when it comes to sexual mores. Sex is a private matter here, in uniform or out of it.

Outside a military barracks on the outskirts of Paris, several young conscripts expressed amazement at the goings-on in the U.S. armed forces. On joining the army recently, they were lectured for three days about honor and respect and the dangers of drugs.

“But sex did not come into it, not once,” said Vattan Vongsavanthong, a Frenchman of Laotian descent. He was interrupted by a fellow recruit who declared that, “If we delved into sexual habits, there would be no more French army!”

That, at least, is the somewhat macho myth. Like any army, the French requires order, and whatever impinges on it is not long tolerated. There is a Rule of General Discipline that does not mention sex, adulterous or otherwise, but whose ethic makes it clear that a liaison that interferes with service cannot be tolerated.

“The basic rule is that if the service does not suffer, then sex is a private question,” said Maj. Henri Dumont, a spokesman for the Foreign Legion.