America was the decisive beneficiary of French aid during the Revolution, and without Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy bringing France in, the outcome would have been far less certain.

21:31don't realize the extent to which yes, George Washington's indispensable, but Ben Franklin, one of the most gifted, you you could say the two most gifted of these four guys that you examined are probably Franklin and Jefferson. He's incredibly gifted. He's a great intellect, but he's also he's got a good sense of people. He's a a great diplomat. He's the greatest diplomat we've ever had. And he brings the French

22:00in. He brings the French in. And if he hadn't brought the French in, maybe it would have still ended up working out for us, but it wouldn't have ended so uh you know um decisively probably. I remember going to Liberty Hall and they had pictures of Louis V 16th and Marian Twinette and I I very much [laughter] felt Marian Twinette was not a kind of revolutionary republic kind of a girl

22:26but there she is and it's a reminder of of the kind of the alliance between the ons regime in France and this upstart revolutionary republic on the other side of the Atlantic. I mean nothing could have persuaded the French to do it except hatred of the British. >> Yeah. Yeah. And there's a direct cause and effect. If the French hadn't thrown so much money into helping us out and

22:49eventually helping us get our freedom, they probably they're probably not in the same kind of uh having the same kind of economic problems that directly lead to the revolution. So, >> well, that's a constellation. >> Yeah. [laughter] So, yeah. Yeah. It's why can't Dominic be more in favor of our of our revolution? because it it brought down >> it brought down the French monarchy. >> Yeah, French monarchy. So, he should be