It was kinda weird over here since it was re-dubbed as "Action Force" who were "International Heroes." This mangled the theme song about as much as you'd expect (try making the word "International" last as many syllables as "A Real American" to see how much). And then the actual cartoon started and Cobra Commander was still cursing GI Joe. And they were international heroes who happened to all still be Americans.
I think after a while they started calling them "GI Joe the Action Force" in adverts (this made the theme song even worse) and later just GI Joe.