JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
As we celebrate America at 250, we're looking at some of the heroes of the day. One was a young Frenchman known simply to most as Lafayette. His offer of help to a young general named George Washington helped cement America's first alliance. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley tells us more.
OLGA ANNA DUHL: He is known as the hero of two worlds because he participated in both, you know, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: That's Olga Anna Duhl, curator of the exhibit Lafayette Between France and America: History and Legend currently on at the National Archives in Paris. She's also a professor of French and comparative literature at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, one of the many American entities that bear Lafayette's name.
DUHL: He was 19 years old when he left. He heard about the insurgents in America, and he decided that he would participate in the war and he would give his services to George Washington.
BEARDSLEY: Born an aristocrat, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, AKA, the Marquis de La Fayette, left all these advantages behind to serve the love for liberty that shaped his entire life, says Duhl. He became a major general in the Continental Army and a friend to George Washington. The two men exchanged letters throughout the war. Many are on display here. My dear general, begins one written at 9:30 a.m. before the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. Lafayette tells Washington of his concern for provisions for his men, especially that they're, quote, "well furnished with spirits." The letters show fewer scratch outs and corrections as Lafayette's English improved, says Duhl.
DUHL: His English becomes really beautiful. He's a very gifted linguist.
BEARDSLEY: Lafayette, along with Benjamin Franklin, convinced King Louis XVI to send soldiers, money and weapons to help the aspiring nation throw off the British yoke. Lafayette's wounding at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777 cemented his status, says Duhl.
DUHL: And that was the first sign of his heroism. And he recovered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
BEARDSLEY: Playing a decisive role in his own country's revolution a decade or so later was more complicated.
DUHL: He believes in liberty, fraternity, equality. He believes in all these ideals. So he's really a revolutionary person.
BEARDSLEY: But his regiment was charged with keeping order and protecting the king. In the end, the monarchists and the revolutionaries accused Lafayette of betrayal. He spent more than five years in prison. Napoleon labeled him a simpleton. But on the other side of the Atlantic, Lafayette's allure only grew, says Duhl.
DUHL: Look at this little baby shoe with his portrait, a brush with his name and a year of his visit.
BEARDSLEY: Lafayette returned to the U.S. for a hero's welcome in 1824. Those items, known as Lafayette goodies, were part of the Lafayette mania sweeping the nation. He was the first foreign leader to address Congress. Nearly a century later, when American forces arrived in France to help turn the tide of World War I, Colonel Charles Stanton uttered the now-famous words, Lafayette nous voila - we are here. Duhl says she hopes visitors will appreciate the long continuity of Franco-American friendship despite recent bumps in the road. Poring over the collection, American visitor Frank Nicolson has another takeaway.
FRANK NICOLSON: My concern for Lafayette is this. He's probably turning over in his grave as he witnesses what is happening in the United States of America.
BEARDSLEY: French visitor Jean-Luc Artsents says he didn't know much about Lafayette, so this exhibit is wonderful. He hopes the French-American alliance will endure.
JEAN-LUC ARTSENTS: The situation is very difficult, extremely trouble.
BEARDSLEY: Mr. Trump is hard to manage, he says, switching to French. Every day, there's something new.
Other visitors say Lafayette's story is a reminder that after 250 years, the Franco-American alliance has endured through revolutions, wars and political disagreements.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
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