Attention France Bashers!

Attention France Bashers!

by Nicholas Andrian on Sunday, July 4, 2010 at 8:17am

On this July 4th, the 234th year of our Independence, it is good to remember the role that France played in our Revolution. WE COULD NEVER HAVE DEFEATED BRITAIN WITHOUT FRANCE'S HELP, PERIOD! First of all, France was the first and only country to recognize the United States as an independent nation. This was fitting, since our Founding Fathers and Patriots were greatly influenced by the French philosophers of twenty or thirty years earlier (mid-18th century), Rousseau, Voltaire and especially Montesquieu. Thomas Paine's pamphlet, "Common Sense" quotes almost verbatim from Montesquieu's 'L'Esprit des Lois' ('The Spirit of Laws') which states that the relationship between the government and the governed is one of mutual consent. This whole concept is enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, which is what we are supposed to be celebrating today. When Ben Franklin arrived in Paris as our ambassador, he was hailed as a hero by the French, not only for his experiments with electricity but expecially for his invention of the Franklin stove, which heated many French homes at the time. Dressed in his simple Quaker garb, he was an instant hit as he rented an expensive house in what is now the 16th District of Paris (very ritzy to this day), laid in a stock of the best French wine and was tended to by a number of young women 'servants.' However, it wasn't until our victory at Saratoga that Louis XVI and his advisors took note of the possibility of an American defeat of the British. French aid then began to pour into the U.S. in the form of munitions, money and men. When Lafayette (age 19) showed up at Washington's headquarters, the latter thought he was just another spoiled nobleman looking for glory. But after Lafayette was wounded in battle, Washington's opinion of him changed and before long Lafayette was named a general. In the final battle at Yorktown, the French fleet blocked off the southern entrance to the Chesapeake Bay (where the Bay Bridge/Tunnel is today), thereby trapping the British and preventing reinforcements from getting through. On the day of the surrender at Yorktown (Oct. 17, 1781), the French lined up on one side and the rat-tag Americans on the other while the British troops marched between them; they turned their backs on the Americans and faced the French, showing their disdain for the Americans, thus indicating that they were surrendering to the French and not to our troops. Jump two years to the peace negotiations at Paris in 1783; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were representing our interests against the British. THE FRENCH, WHO HAD SACRIFICED MEN AND TREASURE TO HELP US, WERE CUT OUT OF THE FINAL DEAL IN FAVOR OF THE BRITISH WHOM WE HAD JUST FOUGHT. The aid that the French monarchy had given us bankrupted its treasury and was a direct cause of the French Revolution of 1789 which overthrew that very monarchy!...Let's now jump 160 years to 1940. France lay prostate at the feet of Hitler. The Germans set up a puppet government, headed by Marshall Petain, the aged hero of World War One, with the resort town of Vichy as its capital. A brave general, who refused to accept this defeat, one Charles de Gaulle, who, as a colonel in the French army, had warned the general staff as far back as 1931 that the only way to avoid a German invasion would be to rely on tank warfare - and was ignored - fled to England and was given the services of the BBC by Churchill in order to broadcast inspiring messages to his countrymen. DE GAULLE RIGHTFULLY CLAIMED THAT THE VICHY GOVERNMENT WAS A COLLABORATIONIST ONE THAT REPRESENTED GERMAN AND NOT FRENCH INTERESTS. As a result, DE GAULLE LAID CLAIM TO THE TITLE OF LEADER OF THE TRUE FRENCH GOVERNMENT-IN- EXILE. What did the arrogant, short-sided bureaucrats in our State Department do? THEY U.S. EXTENDED DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION TO THE GERMAN-LED VICHY GOVERNMENT AND IGNORED DE GAULLE. De Gaulle never forgot this and when he later became president of France and saw that the U.S. continued to maintain support for Britain, often to the detriment of France, he decided to go it alone. Thus, he strengthened ties to France's former enemy, Germany, began to develop a nuclear weapons program, pulled France out of NATO and closed American bases in his country. KEEP THIS IN MIND, YOU IGNORANT FRANCE-BASHERS (such as the Neanderthal I saw recently on Route 78 with a bumper sticker on his pick up truck which read "FRANCE SUCKS"). But our ingratitude toward France should come as no surprise, since we show the same lack of appreciation for the efforts of our Founding Fathers and the brave citizen-soldiers who fought for our freedoms so long ago by allowing an out-of-control government to trash our precious Constitution! Keep all this in mind as you enjoy picnics and fireworks on this special day!