Claiming national credit/shame for the good/ill deeds done by your country has a longer shelf life I think. But there are still thousands of WWII soldiers kicking around many times that of people who directly felt the Nazi boot on their neck to offer thanks. Also, while A2k was a touch crass about it, if a Frenchmen posted "July 4th, your welcome America!" the responses woudl range from "Hey, that's right, Thanks!" to grumbling reminders that the debt has been repaid not hit some sort of statue of limitations of gratitude. It was a lot more than 70 years between AmRev and the world wars but we did actually run a lot of propaganda reminding people we owed the French as part of that war effort.
Perspective: We don't sit around clapping ourselves on the back on D-day here Paul, we celebrate the surviving and dead grandfathers who actually fought there. And I'm pretty sure just about every broadcast about it says "Allied Forces" not "American", and Churchill, Montgomery, and De Gaulle remain household names accorded equal respect with Eisenhower, Patton, and Nimitz and heck I think they're approval rating probably exceeds FDR's.
It was, I think I knew maybe 2 or 3 of those 10 tops.
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King of Cairhien 20-7-2
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