Today's Date:

Speech by Bernard Kouchner, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs.

Mr. Ambassador,
Madam Mayor,
Parliamentarians,
President of the Council General,
Elected Officials,
Mr. Prefect of the Haute-Loire
Mr. Prefect of the Region,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

I do not want to force on you, children of Chavaniac and admirers of Lafayette, a history lesson that you know better than I do. For I am in fact not so sure that Lafayette’s message, 250 years after his birth, can be relegated to history books alone.

You are all familiar with the commitment of a young man barely out of adolescence who experienced the call of America as an intimate wound. “From the day I first heard the name of America, I had no other desire but to spill my blood for her,” he declared.

You are all aware of the courage of the combatant, the skill of the messenger for the American cause.

You are familiar with the French revolutionary, the writer of the great Declaration of 1789, the commander of the National Guard and organizer of the first Bastille Day—the one in 1790.

You are familiar with the consummate politician working behind the scenes of the Restoration for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.

You are all aware of those moments of glory that constitute the history of France and the legend of the man we are celebrating today.

Beyond the impetuous soldier, beyond the hero of American independence, beyond the promoter of human rights, beyond the thousand-faceted life of Lafayette, I would like to highlight a prodigious capacity for self-transcendence, permanent invention and connection with others.

Lafayette, first and foremost, embodied the refusal to accept a life limited by a conventional career and the horizons of day-to-day living. He embodied the call of the high seas, the West that had not yet achieved mythic status but where the freedom of the world was already inventing itself.

He also embodied the patriotism of freedom, recognizing brothers beyond borders, spilling his blood in a war without the motivations of territorial defense, national expansion or financial interests.

He embodied a France that grows great by helping others become great, a France capable of efforts and sacrifices beyond what’s reasonable provided they are just. Let’s not forget that the cost of France’s intervention on behalf of its American confederates represented two years of the State budget!

Lafayette, finally, embodied a France that speaks to the world, that is unafraid of the future or of the unknown, whose accomplishments come from taking risks.

“A man before his time,” say the Americans, speaking of the man they consider “their” marquis. A man ahead of his time and ahead of his country. That is often still the case.

That is why I was so eager to be here with you today, and why France is solemnly honoring a man we sometimes have trouble recognizing as one of our own. And it is why I am very honored and very happy to note the presence here of so many elected officials, particularly Senator Adrien Gouteyron, the vice president of the Senate, a respected diplomat and a rapporteur of our budget at the High Assembly.

One often tends, on this side of the Atlantic, to cast doubt on the reality or sincerity of Lafayette’s commitment. In the complex, obscure or frankly ambiguous episodes of his rich life, we enjoy finding reasons to disparage him. Without contesting the need for or relevance of historical works that shed light on the inconsistent aspects of a personality, I regret that we are unable, sometimes, to remember what our history is made of.

From the time that a young man of 19 decided to cross the ocean to help a country in which he had never set foot, our history has been intimately intertwined with that of a great people whom you, Mr. Ambassador, represent today, that of the United States of America.

For Lafayette did not only contribute to building modern France, the France of human rights and secularism. No more than he contributed only to building America, a land of hope and freedom. Lafayette did much more: He built one of the most beautiful friendships that has ever existed between two nations, a friendship based on shared values, a common faith in humanity and an indefectible solidarity.

Through Lafayette, it is also and especially this friendship that I am happy to celebrate today. A friendship that for us was decisive twice in the darkest hours of the last century. A friendship we must always keep in our memories, especially when political differences—legitimate between two sovereign states—incite a few hasty spirits to make enemies of us. Friendship demands frankness; we are not yes-men, we are friends. We express our disagreements when they exist.

In the United States there are 40 towns, seven counties and one mountain that bear the name of Lafayette. Through this living remembrance, America reminds us of our own commitments; it holds up a mirror reminding us of the need to be a courageous France, guided by the principles of generosity and solidarity.

But the reverse is also true. America, like France, is never as great as when it is rallying the defenders of freedom to its name.

True to the sons of Chavaniac, France and America will remain true to each other, true especially to their history and their grandeur./.