As a former soldier and war correspondent, I abhor demonstrations of flag-waving, militarism and nationalism. That great American, Benjamin Franklin, put it perfectly: ‘no good war, no bad peace.’
But I must admit that my heart does beat faster when I hear the rousing strains of France’s glorious national anthem, ‘La Marseillaise.’ One must be almost dead not to respond to the hymn, first known in 1775 as ‘the war song of the army of the Rhine’ and then the marching song of volunteers from Marseille.
Allons! Enfants de la Patrie! Forward! Sons of France,
Le jour de gloire est arrivé! The Day of Glory has Arrived,
Contre nous de la tyrannie, Against us Tyranny
L’étendard sanglant est levé! Its bloody standard is raised!
A few years ago, I was a guest of France’s government on the reviewing stand of the annual 14 July Bastille Day military parade. Watching the glittering Garde républicaine cavalry, the tough Alpine troops in their huge berets known as “tartes,” and, of course, the grim Foreign Legion march down the Champs Élysées was thrilling.
US President Thomas Jefferson put it best: ‘Every man has two homelands: his own, and France.’
Both Franklin and Jefferson spent time in Paris as ambassadors and helped negotiate France’s decisive military intervention that saved the American Revolution. French troops under the Marquis de Lafayette and a fleet under Admiral Rochambeau and Count de Grasse played the key role in defeating British forces.
Ironically, France was bankrupted by this military effort which also contributed to the French Revolution against King Louis XVI.
One hopes US…