When I went through the RAF college, one of the courses was about relationships with foreign people and leaders in countries where we might be stationed, and/or be asked to defend. At the time British forces were keeping the peace, as much as possible, in scores of countries; for example, trying to keep the Greeks and Turks from murdering each other in Cyprus, and the same with various tribes and religious cults in such far-off places as Burma, Lebanon, Singapore and Malaya. The response from these grateful people, most of whom had been liberated from the Nazis and Japanese? British soldiers and airmen were being shot or stabbed in the back (both metaphorically and literally) in Nicosia, Paphos and other towns in Cyprus, and also in many of the other countries.
One thing was drummed into us: "Do not expect any gratitude. If you do, you will be very disappointed." And that was our experience. In country after country the theme was not "thank you for giving us our freedom from slavery, and independence." It was "British and Americans, get out!" (But continue to send millions in economic help. For ever. While we vilify you in the UN). My dad often related seeing Ghandi for a brief moment in Bombay in 1946, arriving for treatment at the office of a British dentist, in a Rolls-Royce (!) bearing large signs: Boycott British Goods. Not quite the simple ghuru at the spinning wheel, as portrayed in the movie.
Closer to home: It was pointed out that Gen. DeGaul (actually, a colonel who gave himself an instant promotion) was spirited out of France when they folded like a cheap camera in 1940, brought to London, housed and fed like royalty, given the facilities to broadcast to France daily, allowed to take part in policy meetings with Churchill, FDR and Stalin, to feed his incredible ego and maintain the myth that France was still a major power or participant in the allied advance, and even put at the front of the US forces liberating Paris so that he could march in triumph down the Champs Elysees.
What was his response for Britain's hospitality, taking him from total obscurity and making him a personality and future leader of his country, losing hundreds of thousands; no, make that millions, of the flower of its youth liberating his country in WWI and II, and bankrupting itself in the process? As president of France, he continually vetoed Britain's application to join the Common Market, at which he succeeded as long as he lived. Germany, who had raped his country twice in 22 years, was one of the original members, along with Italy (another of the Axis powers), Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. He also made continual sneering references to "Anglo- Saxons," by which he meant America and Britain. Then flying to Quebec and urging French-Canadians to leave the union and declare independence, an act that would have destroyed the country. And today, this mischevious old turd is regarded as almost a saint in France.
Britain and America should have remained in the oil-rich countries in the middle east that they either liberated from the Axis (e.g. Libya, Algeria), or saved from being invaded by them (e.g. Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain). We should have kept control of the oil wells, refineries, pumping stations and tanker ports (all of which were drilled and built by us in any case) for 99 years after the end of WWII.
More recently; in 1991 we should have offered the degenerate, in-bred monarchs in Saudi Arabia a choice: "Either we let Saddam continue through Kuwait and into your desert sand pit, where he will probably cut your throats at the least - or we expend our blood and treasure to repel him and defend you. If you choose the latter option, we take control of your oil wells and we export the oil. We will give you what we think is a fair share of the profits. If you don't like that choice; see ya."
