Perhaps, like me you have a Deyfuss block (I mean I knew about it, but it it was not clear to me that it was a broader indictment of deeply entrenched and rampant anti-Semitism in the French Military, indeed French Society) althought yours probably is related to some different piece of Historical trivia.
Many people are familiar with the ‘XXYZ Affair’ as a casus belli of a period of military tension between France and the United States which happened around 1800 and leave it at that (if they are aware of it at all).
It had interesting and instructive aspects.