Americans in the Rif Rebellion
William Dean
This paper examines the role of Americans in the Rif Rebellion as an observer and as operators. Captain Charles Willoughby of US Army Intelligence studied the rebellion in an official capacity and tried to analyze the conflict for lessons learned. The American mercenary aviators served in Morocco contrary to the wishes of the US State Department. In the summer of 1925, the French government brought in the American aviators because of a shortage of personnel in French military aviation and to hopefully improve Franco-American relations. While the American aviators performed well in Morocco, Americans at official and popular levels were opposed to American mercenaries in Morocco. A wide variety of forces from the improvement of the strategic situation in Morocco to bad American public reaction militated against the continued existence of the Escadrille Cherifienne. The French military learned little practical from this campaign and Franco-American relations were not severely harmed. One could argue that the variety of conflicting reactions of this campaign, illustrated a range of views on colonial warfare.