Benjamin Franklin as a diplomat and covert operator

http://vulgarmorality.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/books-to-read-franklin-or-the-public-minded-man/

•   https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/benjamin-franklin.html

The article above discusses some of Franklin's contributions to aligning French interests with our own during the revolutionary war.  When trying to answer the question:  "Why did France come so much to our aid?" part of the answer seems to lie with the diplomacy and cunning of Franklin.  Franklin knew how to play the French against the English.  Henry Kissinger would later become famous for a similar skill in playing China and Russia against each other for our strategic benefit.

One particularly interesting episode that is mentioned is an account of how Franklin forged a letter from the Prince of Prussia to a military commander stating that the British would compensate the crown more for a dead soldier than a wounded one.  The letter stated therefore that the commander should let his soldiers die without attention!  This letter was apparently widely circulated among the Prussian troops and led to desertions.  It seems that the pragmatic Franklin learned propaganda from his roots in early US journalism.