President Obama To visit Normandy Beaches For D-Day 65th Anniversary Ceremonies/ U.S. President Barack Obama To Visit France For D-Day Anniversary
(NSI News Source Info) PARIS, France - March 27, 2009: U.S. President B
arack Obama will visit France in June for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief of staff said Thursday.
(Photo/Image: Obama visited France - and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - last July as a presidential candidate).
There had been discussion of Obama going to Normandy next month on his trip to Europe, the official, Claude Gueant, told the French TV network France 24. But he would have had only an hour on the beaches where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, the beginning of the drive to push the Nazis out of France during World War II.
That would not have left enough time for conversations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gueant said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's top aide revealed Obama's plans on Thursday, in response to media suggestions that relations between Washington and Paris are strained.
"This will allow for a longer conversation and a more ambitious bilateral visit," Claude Gueant, the secretary general in Sarkozy's Elysee Palace, told France 24 television.Gueant denied any problems between the nations' leaders, noting Sarkozy and Obama talked for half an hour Wednesday to discuss the upcoming G20 summit in London on the economic crisis.
"Relations between the presidents are excellent and very productive," he said. "Mr. Sarkozy is not courting Mr. Obama."
During the presidential campaign, Obama often talked about his family ties to World War II and the sacrifices that generation made.
Obama's maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham, served in World War II and was later educated on the GI Bill. His great uncle, Charles Payne, was a member of the U.S. 89th infantry division and helped free inmates at a subcamp of the concentration camp at Buchenwald in Germany.
Preparations are underway for the upcoming D-Day celebrations to mark the 65th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 allied landings in France, then occupied by Nazi Germany. 
arack Obama will visit France in June for the 65th anniversary of D-Day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief of staff said Thursday. (Photo/Image: Obama visited France - and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - last July as a presidential candidate).
There had been discussion of Obama going to Normandy next month on his trip to Europe, the official, Claude Gueant, told the French TV network France 24. But he would have had only an hour on the beaches where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, the beginning of the drive to push the Nazis out of France during World War II.
That would not have left enough time for conversations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gueant said.
