For France, a D-Day Ceremony Laced With Paradox

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/opinion/trump-macron-may-d-day.html

Version 0 of 1.

PARIS — President Trump will spend a few hours this week in Normandy, where, 75 years ago on June 6, in Ronald Reagan’s memorable words, “The Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.” Unlike Mr. Reagan, though, Mr. Trump will be hard-pressed to convince skeptical European allies that today’s United States would be willing to commit itself to such an undertaking.

Will he even try? This is, after all, a president who would not provide a coherent answer when, on the eve of a NATO summit last year, Tucker Carlson, a Fox News host, asked him why his son should go to Montenegro to defend it from attack. “I understand what you’re saying,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people. They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in World War III.”

That is as far as you can get from Mr. Reagan’s eloquent justification of the sacrifice of thousands of young men on D-Day, which brought people to tears on June 6, 1984. Speaking atop the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, which Army Rangers heroically climbed under a hail of bullets in 1944, Mr. Reagan had a clear answer to the crucial question — “Why? Why did you do it?” — he had posed to the veterans seated in front of him. “The men of Normandy,” he proclaimed, “had faith that they fought for all humanity. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for and democracy is worth dying for.” To Mr. Reagan, the beaches of Normandy were the “place where the West held together.”

Different times, different presidents. Today, the very concept of the West is called into question. On June 5, in Portsmouth, England, and in Normandy the next day, Mr. Trump will pay tribute to the Allied operation to liberate Europe. And alongside him will be two European leaders who have experienced firsthand his unorthodox way of conducting foreign policy — and not for the better.

Mr. Trump has certainly been part of Theresa May’s ordeal as prime minister of Britain, which will soon come to an end. No American president has been as consistently hostile to a British leader as Mr. Trump has been to Mrs. May, whom he humiliated again and again while her country was going through excruciating soul-searching about its future. As a divided Britain was preparing to cast away from Europe, the strongest pillar it had traditionally been relying on, the United States, treated it like any other junior partner. If the American-British-Canadian forces’ landing in Normandy can be seen as opening the era of an Anglo-American world order, the unfortunate coincidence of Brexit and Trumpism will come to symbolize the end of it.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, meanwhile, is still navigating a complex relationship with an American president he has tried — and failed — to charm, but with whom he maintains a dialogue. The two men speak regularly on the phone, according to their entourages. They spoke again last month after French special forces freed four hostages, including an American woman, held by a jihadist group in Burkina Faso. Two French commandos lost their lives during the operation, which was carried out with the help of intelligence provided by American drones. This is one of the paradoxes of the French-American relationship: The two leaders may be at odds on crucial topics like climate change, Iran or trade, but the cooperation of their militaries, particularly on the anti-terrorist front, is intense and spotless. And defense is one of the few consensual issues in France.

These are cards Mr. Macron keeps close to his chest, and he will use them on Thursday. The 41-year-old president, who has never personally seen a war but cherishes history, needs a compelling argument with which to unite his fragmented country. He has been trying to build a new national narrative that could fit into his ambition to strengthen European integration. Last November he used the centenary of the armistice which ended World War I for this purpose, and he will try again on this anniversary of D-Day, by emphasizing the role of the French resistance in the Allied landing.

That is the Gaullist approach. Charles de Gaulle, who organized the French Resistance from London in 1940 and managed to take the lead in liberating Paris in 1944, declined to attend the ceremonies commemorating “the Anglo-Saxon landing” as French head of state in 1964. His own national narrative had been to convince his fellow countrymen of the major role played by the Resistance in freeing them from the Nazi occupation. It took another 20 years for a French president, François Mitterrand, to join Ronald Reagan atop Omaha Beach.

Mr. Reagan was elegant enough to mention the Resistance’s “valiant struggle,” which “did so much to cripple the enemy and spur the advance of the armies of liberation.” Historians know, of course, that the determining factor was the massive deployment of Allied forces. French forces did take part in the D-Day landing: The Kieffer Commando, led by Philippe Kieffer, an officer of the Resistance, landed on Sword Beach and suffered heavy losses, but it was only 177-men strong.

On Thursday, during the few hours he will spend with Mr. Trump in Colleville-sur-Mer, Mr. Macron will award the Legion d’Honneur to five American veterans and express France’s deep gratitude to them. But he will also make a point of meeting two French veterans of the Kieffer Commando, aged 100 and 97, and of visiting a prison in Caen where the Germans executed more than 80 French resistants on June 6, 1944. “The French must know how much they are indebted to those heroes,” an official in the Élysée Palace pointed out. “This spirit of resistance is very much part of being French.” And “being French” is something Mr. Macron has decided to redefine, to the point of calling it “the art of being French.”

There is another message President Macron wants to convey when he meets his difficult, yet essential, American partner on this historic occasion. D-Day, in his view, was one of the foundations of the multilateral order; France and America must stand side by side to defend freedom and democracy. But in these uncertain times, the French must be aware that they will also have to rely on their own forces. The same message applies to a new Franco-British monument, which Mr. Macron will inaugurate on June 6 with Mrs. May: Despite Brexit, the French military is adamant that its British counterpart should be kept in the European orbit, as close as possible.

There is irony here. In 1956, France and Britain suffered a humiliating political defeat in the Middle East at the hands of an American president after trying jointly to regain control of the Suez Canal, which had been nationalized by Egypt. London and Paris drew different lessons from that sobering episode. From then on, Britain would be the most loyal ally of the United States. Two years later, France brought de Gaulle back to power and embarked on its own original path, allied but not aligned.

Today, perplexed by American leadership, the French summon the memory of World War II to prevent their British friends from drifting away.

Sylvie Kauffmann is the editorial director and a former editor in chief of Le Monde, and a contributing opinion writer.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.