Editing Merian C. Cooper (section)

===Kościuszko Squadron===
The contract for the formation of a volunteer American flight squadron was signed by Rozwadowski, Cooper and Major [[Cedric Fauntleroy]] at the Wagram Hotel in Paris on August 26, 1919.<ref name="MP" />{{rp|218}} On his arrival in Poland, Cooper met with cold reception from the [[Chief of State (Poland)|Chief of State]] [[Józef Piłsudski]], who considered the Americans "paid mercenaries". They were nonetheless dispatched to Lviv in October 1919 and drafted into the Polish military as the [[Kościuszko Squadron]] in December.<ref name="MP" />{{rp|219–20}} Cooper then provided air combat support for the [[Polish Army]] in the [[Polish–Soviet War]].<ref name="hoover" /> On July 13, 1920, his plane was shot down, and he spent nearly nine months in a Soviet [[prisoner of war camp]]<ref name="american polish" /> where the writer [[Isaac Babel]] interviewed him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/babel.htm |title=Isaac Babel |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308090843/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/babel.htm |archive-date=March 8, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He escaped just before the war was over and made it to [[Latvia]]. For his valor he was decorated by Polish [[commander-in-chief]] [[Józef Piłsudski]] with the highest Polish military decoration, the [[Virtuti Militari]].<ref name="american polish" />
[[File:CooperAtLatvianBorder.jpg|thumb|right|Cooper at the Latvian border after escaping the Soviet POW camp]]

During his time as a POW, Cooper wrote an autobiography: ''Things Men Die For''.<ref name="hoover" /> The manuscript was published by [[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] in New York (the Knickerbocker Press) in 1927. However, in 1928, Cooper regretted releasing certain details about "Nina" (probably Marjorie Crosby-Słomczyńska) with whom he had relations outside of wedlock. Cooper asked Dagmar Matson, who had the manuscript, to buy all the copies of the book possible. Matson found almost all 5,000 copies that had been printed. The books were destroyed, while Cooper and Matson each kept a copy.<ref name="hoover" /><ref name="open library">{{cite book|title=Things Men Die For: About the Book|ol=6703214M}}</ref>

An [[interbellum]] Polish film directed by [[Leonard Buczkowski]], ''[[Gwiaździsta eskadra]]'' (The Starry Squadron), was inspired by Cooper's experiences as a Polish Air Force officer. The film was made with the cooperation of the Polish army and was the most expensive Polish film prior to [[World War II]]. After World War II, all copies of the film found in Poland were destroyed by the Soviets.<ref name="naszemiasto">{{cite web|last1=Snusz|first1=Zbyszek|title="Gwiaździsta eskadra" – film kręcony z gigantycznym rozmachem w 1930 roku|url=http://poznan.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/gwiazdzista-eskadra-film-krecony-z-gigantycznym-rozmachem-w,1550277,art,t,id,tm.html|website=Naszemiasto|date=September 25, 2012|access-date=8 July 2016}}</ref>