When a French force under General Jean Baptiste Rochambeau linked up with George Washington's revolutionary army in 1781 to fight the British, France became America's first wartime ally. Thus it was fitting that the code word assigned to the first target in the French-U.S. thrust into Iraq was Rochambeau. The choice not only saluted France's fighting commitment to the allied cause but also symbolized France's newfound solidarity with the U.S. when war came.
Nowhere was the sight of the French tricolor flying above advancing armor greeted with more relief than at allied headquarters in the gulf. When Desert Storm began, there...
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