Of course the Queen should be at the Normandy Landings commemoration.
But of course there is hardly any reference to Britain's or the wider Commonwealth's role in Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan. Why would there be? We and the Americans landed on different beaches. The average British, never mind American, soldier did not know Montgomery personally.
Neither the Americans nor the ex-Soviets have ever regarded us as particularly important in the War, nor have the Americans ever regarded this particular War as particularly important at all.
And note that there is no "special relationship" blather here. The French call D-Day "primarily a Franco-American affair" and the Americans do not disagree, even though it is factually incorrect. Returning the compliment of America's real, and entirely justifiable, attitude towards every foreign country without discrimination earns the French the respect that we insist on denying ourselves. As this whole affair more than amply demonstrates.
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The French government chooses who to invite to this thing, right? Well, there you go. Sarkozy probably didn't want to share the glamor any more than he had to, and maybe figured that a general invitiation to the British government would result in Gordon Brown -- or someone else who wouldn't draw too much attention away from him. Sarko is said to be like that.
ReplyDelete"Neither the Americans nor the ex-Soviets have ever regarded us as particularly important in the War, nor have the Americans ever regarded this particular War as particularly important at all."At least as far as American views are concerned, that's really not the case.
"And note that there is no "special relationship" blather here.The French call D-Day "primarily a Franco-American affair" and the Americans do not disagree, even though it is factually incorrect."I'd like to point out that Americans view D-Day through the lens of our special debt to France, whose aid in the Revolutionary War made the US possible. That's why America abounds with things named after General Lafayette, and why you hear strains of La Marseillaise played before the fireworks on the Fourth.
I reckon the French have also preferred to see the liberation of their country in the same context: as the repayment of a moral debt owed to them over the centuries.
In any case, the White House hopes to see Queen Elizabeth at the event, and has said so:
"US weighs in on Anglo-French D-Day kerfuffleWASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States waded into the murky waters of an Anglo-French diplomatic ruckus Friday, supporting the presence of Britain's Queen Elizabeth at an upcoming D-Day remembrance event in Normandy.
The White House, jettisoning a long-vaunted US reluctance to enter the squabbles of European courts, said it would like to see the British monarch attend the event on June 6, when President Barack Obama will be present.
"I think that there is no doubt her contribution and her presence would be important," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, telling reporters "we are not in charge of the guests list, I can assure you that."http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jQrrk4oF652LncIFhyZdpjElaHSA
Americans tend to over-emphasise their role in WW2.
ReplyDeleteThey were neutral.......like Spain Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, Ireland, Portugal, Luxemburg and Belgium.
While some of these nations DID participate in WW2 it was only after they were attacked. This of course is entirely proper.
Quite proper also that France and Britain joined in a war because of treaty obligations to Poland.
But USA was always a semi detached ally from the main event.
Americans quite understandably regard the War as mostly something that happened in the Pacific, and as less importnat than either their own Civil War or Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteIf the Americans still felt a debt to the French by the 1940s, then they took rather a long time to feel any need to repay it.
Well the Americans should not feel too detached from WW2. The Nazi expansion East in the 1940s was quite similar to Americas expansion west in the 1840s.
ReplyDeleteCuriously its not something that my transatlantic friends dwell on.
This is the closest you've ever come to writing something I agree with. Of course there's no British reference in Saving Private Ryan. There was no British involvement in Omaha Beach. Similarly, the focus on British characters in The Wooden Horse doesn't mean the filmmakers didn't know of the existence of the Russian Front.
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