ABSTRACT
In June 1928 the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, received an encouraging report from his ambassador in Washington. American opinion of France was now much improved, thanks to the current project by Briand and the American Secretary of State, Frank B.Kellogg to outlaw war as a device for resolving international differences. According to Ambassador Paul Claudel, any morally inspired group in America-and there were many-was firmly behind the idea of making war illegal. And because the idea was good, and France was associated with the idea, then France too, was good and worthy of praise. For the past six months, the ambassador observed, France had been the darling of the press world; and where once her diplomats had been received in the State Department with hostile stares, they now encountered friendly smiles.1 It was unnecessary to elaborate on the importance of such a development, for America’s contribution to the winning of the last war, and its potential for helping avert or win the next, assured it high station among France’s diplomatic objectives.
