COURTESY TRANSLATION OF GENERAL CRENE'S LETTER
DATED 26 OCTOBRE 2001

I am very happy that both West Point Military Academy and Saint Cyr Military Academy will celebrate their Bicentennial in 2002. I hope this celebration will be the occasion for these two Academies already united by privileged ties and exchanges of showing once again that they represent the highest common military values of our two nations.

Over two centuries thousands of West Pointers and "Saint Cyriens" have embodied, side by side, on battlefields, the superb solidarity of our two Armies.

After American soldiers joined the "Great War for Freedom" on 8 April 1917, World War I saw for the first time American and French officers fight with the same spirit of determination. As courageous patriots these officers suffered in trenches. They are symbols of military greatness.

The unforgettable landing of American troops in Normandy in June 1944 symbolizes the rediscovered hope. These soldiers' fight until final victory changed the course of the war. Their memory remains engraved on my fellow citizens' hearts. After the war two great political men, who graduated from these schools, General Eisenhower and General De Gaulle won their fellow citizens' trust to assume the supreme responsibility of the State.

In 1949 the United States Military Academy was rewarded with the cross of the Légion d'Honneur, a rare event for a foreign academy.

In Korea our soldiers wrote glorious history pages, the ones of comrades-in-arms, united by the common ideal of two nations committed once again to the defense of liberty across the world.

Today our two Armies are again playing an important role in difficult peacekeeping missions throughout the world. Officers engaged in this task show the same military qualities as their elders.

History has then often brought together these two schools and their graduates, junior chiefs with character who have the honor to ensure the outstanding mission of defending their homeland and their fellow citizens under any circumstances.

I strongly hope that all the events which are going to take place during this bicentennial year allow the strengthening of the bonds of comradeship and respect between our two schools.