Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance

by Frank W. Brecher

Overview

Brecher explores the controversial diplomacy by which the United States separately brought to a de facto close its War of Independence against the British, leaving its one ally, France, in the lurch. He focuses on the two dominant, ostensibly allied peace negotiators, John Jay and Vergennes.

Veteran diplomat and diplomatic history author Frank Brecher follows the chronology of the American War of Independence, alternating between accounts of the conflict as experienced diplomatically and, in less detail, militarily by the Americans and the French, respectively. In doing so, after summarizing in his preface a highly informed and articulate contemporary analysis of the origins of the Revolution from the perspective of the more conservative elements of the American leadership, of whom John Jay was very much a part, Brecher focuses on the particular experiences of Jay and Vergennes, both in their personal lives and in their politial careers. He describes and compares their respective—and quite different—preparations for their historical activities as peace negotiators, and describes the major developments of the conflict itself as they themselves participated in, and analyzed, them.

While Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, for the first time in his career, remained physically stationary in Versailles, Jay, for the first time in his life as well as career, left the New York region to live in Philadelphia, then Madrid, and finally Paris, before returbaning as Secretary for Foreign Affairs in 1784, after four and a half eventful and personally dramatic years abroad. The lessons each of these two diplomats learned as a result of the crucible through which they had to pass before their very personal—and historically important—encounter in France toward war's end very much affected the negotiating strategies they adopted and the ultimatley paradoxical mixture of both triumph and disappoinment with which they helped bring to a succesful conclusion the military phase of an alliance embarked upon by their two nations some five long years earlier. Brecher presents a provocative view of early American diplomacy that will be of interest to scholars and students alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313325915
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2003
Series:	Contributions to the Study of World History , #105
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

FRANK W. BRECHER is a former career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service. Among his earlier publications are Reluctant Ally: United States Foreign Policy Toward the Jews from Wilson to Roosevelt (Greenwood Press, 1991) and Losing a Continent: France's North American Policy, 1753-1763 (Greenwood Press, 1998).

Table of Contents

Preface
Two Determined Diplomats
The Pre-Independence Outlook, 1774-76
From the Declaration of Independence to the Battle of Saratoga
From the French-U.S. Alliance to Spain's Entrance into the War, February 1778-April 1779
From the French-Spanish Alliance of April 1779 Versus England to the Militarily Victorious Year of 1781
1781-82: An American Military Campaign Unexpectedly Changes the Shape of the War
Peace Negotiations, 1782-83
Concluding Assessments
Appendix A: A Contemporary View of Pre-Independence Military Events and Their Consequences
Appendix B: Secretary Livingston's Unsent Analysis of "The Present State of Europe" (December 1781)
Appendix C: For Further Reading
Source Notes