Not entirely true. Our national beverage might have been tea without a little assistance. France is like that buddy you used to get shitfaced with, chase broads, etc. But then you lost contact for a couple years, he came out, got himself a boyfriend, and started looking down on you and refusing to help you out because you're a homophobe... or something along those lines.
Without them, we would have no idea that Savoir Faire was everywhere, we'd lose out on a LOT of jokes, and like them or not, they do a good job with that whole wine thing. They've at least contributed something. What I want to know is why the hell Bulgaria gets a free pass? What the hell have they done for us lately?
Lies. No occupying force in a foreign land has ever been able to maintain control for an extended period of time. The French helped during the revolutionary war, I'll give them that much, but we would've eventually won without them.