Living Information

2003-05-09

[Lead-In]
1. Now, a lesson in diplomacy from a small town near Paris - officials in Washington and Paris might take heed on how to improve ties that was severely strained by the war in Iraq. As CNN's Jim Bitterman reports, the French community is looking back to see what may be ahead.

[Story]
2. In a town of 2500, a half hour's drive from Paris, a crowd of French citizens saluted the American flag as the Star-Spangled Banner echoed across a small square. As every year since the war, the names of nine American soldiers who died on that spot nearly six decades ago are read out in remembrance.

3. Said one city official, "those who think the French have forgotten their debt to the U.S. simply haven't traveled much." The mayor says a difference of opinion should not turn a friend into a foe.

[Gerard Larcher, Rambouillet Mayor]
"In spite of the difference on political and diplomatical approach, we know very well here who are our real friends."

4. But the compliance that the U.S. now seems to demand from its friends has been the subject of one conference after another on this side of the Atlantic.

At this one, a warning from the American ambassador.

"But I do believe the relationship is at the cross roads. The direction it takes will depend on how we resolve the important issues immediately ahead of us."

5. If that was one way of saying 'our way or the highway', the ambassador's host disagrees.

"The framework of a partnership does not mean one party should be completely submissive to another."

6. In a country where 'frites' have not yet become 'freedom fries' and where no one pours wine of any nationality down the drain, some are perplexed by how intolerant and vengeful Americans now seem to be just because others argue for a different view of the world.

7. When an Italian comedian in Paris opened a satirical review called "George Bush, Sad Cowboy of God", he was promptly beaten up. "These people were clearly against the play," he says. But he stopped short of accusing Americans of being behind the attack.

8. What is, in fact, surprising is how restrained the public outcry has been here in the face of the anti-French campaign in the United States which if directed against most any other national or ethnic group would be, as several commentators have pointed out, nothing short of bigotry.

9. Back in Rambouillet at a second ceremony marking Victory in Europe Day, the head of the Franco-American Veteran's Association, the widow of an American soldier is disappointed at the way some in the U.S. have vilified France.

[Marie-France Rodgers, Franco-American Veteran's Assn.]
"It's a pity. Really! It's a little part of the United States. Even if Mr. Powell says that we… it's the fault of the France, but we also are a democracy. We also can have an opinion."

10. Searching for something hopeful to say about trans-Atlantic relations, several of the V.E. Day commemoration pointed a visitor to the nearby Chateau of Rambouillet. Many of the trees along its rustic path came from seedlings grown in the U.S. - a gift arranged by Thomas Jefferson to King Louis XVI for its help during the American Revolution. "For two and a half centuries, they withstood every manner of storm", said the mayor. "The trees are a symbol of a long long friendship."

Jim Bitterman, CNN, Rambouillet, France.