Was the money requested by the French for the XYZ affair really a bribe?

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My recollection of history books is that the money was regarded as a bribe due to the money was going not to the French national coffers, but rather specifically to the French aristocrat/politician/diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PΓ©rigord, often referred to as "Talleyrand".

Wikipedia has a sourced claim of the same (Stinchcombe, William (October 1977). "The Diplomacy of the WXYZ Affair". The William and Mary Quarterly. 34 (4): 590–617. JSTOR 2936184. pg. 598)

Also, there was (according to Wikipedia) a culture clash; such things were apparently common in continental European politics, but not among the Americans.

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