Leg, I agree that under the NATO philosophy that an attack on one is an attack on all, the French (and the Belgians, Italians, Spanish, Portugese, etc etc) should all have responded to the attack on Norway .
However, my thinking is that in the world of realpolitik the West German invasion of the East gave those Governments that wanted to shirk their responsibilities an excuse to do so (a weak excuse in my opinion, but an excuse nonetheless).
I'm not sure when the French pulled out...I think I remember a quote somewhere (most likely the v1 ref's manual) that says some countries remain in NATO around the end of 96 / start of 97 but have not taken part in the War, but it's been a while since I read that book, so I might be wrong and in any event I don't think it specifically referred to the French.
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Author of the unofficial and strictly non canon Alternative Survivor’s Guide to the United Kingdom
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