We delved into history last week to cover the NASCAR Hall of Fame picks, and today we go back farther in time, to the beginnings of the United States. Today is the anniversary of the surrender of Gen. Cornwallis to Gen. George Washington at Yorktown, Va., in 1781, which led to negotiations for U.S. independence. Kinda makes you all patriotic and teary-eyed and, of course, grateful to the French, right? Yes, the French. Despite conservatives’ kneejerk dislike of the French because they had the wisdom to not go along with Dubya’s Iraqi adventure (remember the “freedom fries” silliness?), an independent United States of America would not – repeat, would not – be here, if not for the funding, soldiers, ships, and strategies “donated” to our revolutionaries by France.
Yorktown, in particular, was at least as much a French victory as an American one, which you can read about in more detail here. Historians calculate that France gave the present-day equivalent of $8 billion to the fledgling American government during the Revolution. Needless to say, French involvement was inspired more by their desire to smack the British around than in our independence, but hey, they sure came through for the United States. Which brings up another anti-French whine you always hear: “They don’t appreciate what we did for them in World War II, we saved their asses,” etc., etc. Ask someone in France who knows his or her history about it, and they will likely point out their role in our revolution and suggest that maybe WWII means the two countries are now even.
This article appears in Oct 13-20, 2009.
Very nice commentary. I love having Allies and France has always been an excellent one, our, rather inane, bashing aside.
Hi Frank Griffin,
sure, we’ve helped eachother a lot during the past few wars. That’s what allies are for. However, I’d like to point a few things out:
You claim that the US spent loads on WWII, and lost plenty of men. That’s true, and nobody’s disputing that. However, keep in mind that WWII was not about “saving the French”. WWII was a world war. The Axis declared war on the United States in 1942; by that time, the French had already been steamrolled and had lost 100,000 dead and 200,000 wounded. By the end of the war, both France and the US had suffered 350,000 casualties each.
What I mean to say is that WWII was as much about the Americans, the Brits, the French, the Poles and the Russians, it was a war led by the Allies against the Axis, not a war to “free the French”, not a war to “free the Poles”, not a war to “free the Ducth” or “free the Belgians”.
Just wanted to point that out. Measuring who owes who is always pretty pointless IMHO, but render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and render unto God that which belongs to God.
Vive la France, and God bless America.
And French aid to the Colonies was out of the goodness of their hearts?
Remember, countries have interests not allies
Andre you only make my point more. All of Europe owes us buddy not just France.
Anyways I was mainly trying to help Grooms understand the world around him better. He obviously needs lots of help.
//I also think we lost many more men as a percentage of population than the French did.//
Um….no, not even close. Considering the French lost more soldiers in WW 1 than the US has in all wars combined, I think comparing the two is inaccurate. We won’t even get into WW 2 with the civilian population killed.
//Andre you only make my point more. All of Europe owes us buddy not just France.//
Frank, I think you may have missed Andre’s point entirely. He was emphasizing that it took the effort of ALL allies to defeat the Nazis, not just the US. Thanks to an almost completely ethnocentric and exceptionalist view of world history, I find most Americans think they did it all themselves and give little or no credit to other who also sacrificed. The US did not enter WW 1 or WW 2 to “save France”.
It’s not about stepping down a notch, it’s about having the humble courtesy to give credit where credit is due. This also translates into general gratitude, of which the French show a lot. Given I’ve had the great fortune to witness anniversaries of D-Day and Yorktown, I can say with certainty that there was an outpouring of genuine gratitude at one, and mild imterest at the other.
Both France and the US sacrificed greatly in the past for a common cause, and both France and the US are currently sacrificing much on the present day War on Terror. The problem I see with my fellow Americans, is that we all to often know who are enemies are, but often are unable to see who are our friends. Here’s to hoping that Mr. Grooms’s article might help change that for the better, if only a little bit at a time.