
Myths of the American Revolution (2010) - diodorus
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/myths-of-the-american-revolution-10941835/?all
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bryanlarsen
I would certainly include "the war was between the US and Britain" as one of
those myths. Many historians see the American revolutionary war as an
extension of the 7 year war between France and Britain -- France supplied the
navy, the material, the money, and the leadership (Lafayette). America
provided the cannon fodder. France spent so much on the American revolutionary
war that they bankrupted themselves, leading to their own revolution a few
years later.

It's funny. Whenever France is mentioned in a political thread, inevitably a
joke is made about the ineffectiveness of the French military. Most commenters
don't realize that joke is grounded in American insecurity about their own
founding myth.

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vacri
Revolutionary war, not civil war. And the French joke is about France being
quickly overrun in WWII, followed by being kicked out of a colony by the
natives (Vietnam) at a time when the US war machine was seeing victory
everywhere. That the US was kicked out by the same ex-colony is generally
forgotten amongst the general projection of power they otherwise enjoyed
around the globe.

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wtbob
> That the US was kicked out by the same ex-colony…

Except that we weren't. We won the Vietnam War: when we left, North Vietnam
had pledged to allow the people of South Vietnam to decide their destiny.

Then they broke their promise and invaded, the Congress refused to aid South
Vietnam, and that was all she wrote.

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icegreentea
Finishing a war with exit conditions that you can't enforce doesn't really
sound like winning in any meaningful sense.

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wtbob
Well, we promised to assist if North Vietnam broke its promises, but after
Watergate the Congress felt it could break that promise. It really was a
terrible time.

