COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) – Attempting to mend fences, France’s finance minister on Sunday took U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on a tour of Normandy beaches and said differences between the two countries over Iraq cannot hurt traditional ties.
The visit to the beaches where thousands of American soldiers lost their lives to liberate France from Nazi occupiers followed a two-day Group of Eight meeting with monetary officials from the world’s wealthiest countries and Russia.
The loss of life “demonstrates that 50 years later, relations that are so tight cannot, and will not, ever be ruptured,” French Finance Minister Francis Mer said.
Mer and Snow also sought to move beyond differences over Iraq to work together to spur global economic growth at the G8 meetings at the seaside resort of Deauville.
The two were regularly seen sharing warm handshakes, smiles and pats on the back – in contrast to the harsh exchange of words between Washington and Paris after France refused to back the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
France also is pushing for changes to a U.S.-backed United Nations resolution to lift sanctions on Iraq now that Saddam Hussein has been ousted.
On Sunday, Mer and Snow flew over Omaha beach – where the U.S. 1st and 29th Army divisions landed on D-Day June 6, 1944. Then along with Canadian Finance Minister John Manley, they strolled among the white headstones at the American Normandy Cemetery.
“I want to thank my friend, Minister Mer, for making possible this opportunity,” Snow said after laying a wreath below a bronze statue dedicated “To American Youth Rising from the Seas.”
“This hallowed ground … calls to mind the sacrifice, the heroism and the nobility of the human spirit,” he said. The immaculate cemetery contains the remains of 9,387 U.S. servicemen and women.
The Allies’ invasion was the first breach in Hitler’s Atlantic wall and eventually led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Few of the troops who landed that day had any combat experience, and thousands were gunned down by German machine gun and mortar fire.
Mer said he took Snow to the cemetery to “acknowledge the sacrifice of all these young people, which enabled Europe to be free.”
Sue Franz of Arkansas said that she and her husband, Kurt, had hesitated about whether to come to Europe because of the tensions over Iraq tensions, but they were glad they did.
“Our people are the same, it’s political,” she said while walking along Omaha beach, which her father passed through three days after the initial invasion.
Frenchman Rene Cormier, a decorated 82-year-old war veteran who guided U.S. and British paratroopers behind enemy lines on D-Day and laid mines to block Nazi reinforcements, welcomed the visitors.
“I love America,” he said after shaking Snow’s hand. “Tell the Americans, thank you!”
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