Eighteen years after World War I came to a close, Americans collectively wondered, as they began to think about all the empty chairs assembled around so many family dinner tables, “Do the French care at all that we sacrificed so much? Do they still remember that we were there?” In response to this question, an American veteran who remained in France, submitted the attached article to The American Legion Monthly and answered those questions with a resounding “YES”:
“…I can assure you that the real France, the France of a thousand and one villages in which we were billeted; the France of Lorraine peasants, of Picardy craftsmen, of Burgundy winegrowers – remembers, with gratitude, the A.E.F. and its contribution to the Allied victory.”
The article is accompanied by eight photographs of assembled Frenchmen decorating American grave sites.
The illustration posted above appeared on the cover of The American Legion Weekly for July 13, 1923.
Click here to read an article by a grateful Frenchman who was full of praise for the bold and forward-thinking manner in which America entered the First World War.
