Our oldest ally sets sail to help tell the story of America's birth

Can a single ship come to symbolize an alliance between two great nations that began more than 200 years ago? If she is L’Hermione, a modern-day replica of an 18th-century French frigate, the answer is yes.

Perhaps because of our bizarre, but well-established, antipathy toward all things French (think "freedom fries"), Americans easily lose sight of a key historical fact. It's often said that France is one of America's oldest allies, but that's incorrect. France is the oldest ally of the United States.

Yes, we share a language, and much more, with the United Kingdom. But when the fledgling American republic was fighting to secure its independence from Britain, it was France that came to our aid, and in a big way, with money, munitions, soldiers and naval forces.

The Marquis de Lafayette joined the fight in 1777. France formally recognized the United States the following year and sent a fleet to America. A joint French-American campaign failed to liberate Newport, Rhode Island, from the British, but French ships and thousands of French troops joined American patriots in a bid to seize Savannah, Georgia, in 1779. This, too, was unsuccessful.

Lafayette returned to France in 1779, and lobbied for French reinforcements. The following year, he sailed back to America aboard L’Hermione, with the triumphant news that France would send another 6,000 soldiers to aid the American rebels. Those troops later participated in the decisive American victory at Yorktown, Virginia, where a massive French naval force landed still more soldiers, defeated a British fleet in Chesapeake Bay and blockaded Yorktown, to prevent the British from escaping by sea.

So the ship that carried Lafayette to the United States in 1780, bearing France’s pledge of additional - and all-important - support, is a fitting emblem of the partnership that won our independence. Now comes news that a replica of L’Hermione, constructed in France, plans to set sail for America next month. This video opens a window on the historic ship's rebirth.