American D-Day Vets Arrive in Paris [View All]

[peterh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4169226,00.html

PARIS (AP) - With armfuls of gifts, France on Friday welcomed back American veterans who helped free Europe from Nazi occupation when they landed on Normandy's beaches 60 years ago.

One hundred former World War II fighters saluted and waved as they climbed off a chartered Air France plane that brought them from Washington, D.C., to receive France's highest honor at D-Day anniversary commemorations this weekend.

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Moretto saw the anniversary as a welcome chance to remember the ties that bind America and France together despite bad feelings between the allies over the Iraq war.

He said he was distressed by anti-French sentiment in the United States, noting that many Normandy civilians have carefully tended the graves of America's war dead.

``The French have always been good to us,'' he said. ``And now we're going to toss that aside? I don't think that's right. It's not from the World War II veterans.''


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