The article examines the construction of a National Monument honoring the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of volunteer U.S. soldiers who fought in the Spanish Civil War for Spain's Republican forces, in San Francisco, California, with emphasis given to the meaning associated with the structure's erection by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB). Therefore, the author is broadly interested in the relationship between historical commemoration and collective memory. More specifically, the article investigates how members of the VALB interpret the Brigade's efforts as an aspect of American, and not necessarily international or Spanish, history, thereby employing varying notions of U.S. nationalism and Internationalism in discussions on the monument's importance.