During the Cuban missile crisis, President Kennedy sent former Secretary of State Dean Acheson to brief French President Charles de Gaulle on America’s findings and intentions. This was not an altogether easy assignment. De Gaulle was already on the path of assertive national independence that later led him to withdraw France from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s integrated military command. When Acheson began to show de Gaulle surveillance photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba, the French president waved him off.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 18, 2019 22:41 UTC