On
June 5, 1944 at 4 AM, General Dwight D. Eisenhower uttered the
phrase, "OK, let's go." With those few words, he ordered that the
invasion of Western Europe by 2 million men, 4,500 ships, and
12,000 aircraft be launched at Normandy the following day.
That evening-after there had been 6,000 initial casualties, but
with heavy fighting on Omaha Beach, the landing had been
secured-President Franklin Roosevelt spoke to the nation. Summoning
his oratorical powers, Roosevelt relayed the efforts to retake
Europe from Nazi barbarism as a prayer: "Almighty God; Our sons,
pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a
struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, our civilization,
and to set free a suffering humanity."
The
liberation of Europe had begun.
This is what
President Bush crosses the Atlantic to celebrate. And while this
colossal accomplishment should have nothing to do with the daily
strains currently endemic in the transatlantic relationship, the
President has an opportunity to bolster America's efforts at public
diplomacy in Europe. For all the differences between America and
Europe-based on different views of philosophy, culture, religion,
politics, and economics-great truths still bind together their
peoples.
America, far more
than any other non-European country, has paid the price in treasure
and the blood of its sons for the prosperous Europe of today. While
it is within the rights of the current crop of European leaders to
question and even dissent from American policies and to dislike
American leaders, the rows of crosses and stars of David that
leaders on both sides of the Atlantic will honor do render one such
critique beyond the pale: It is wrong, and unseemly, to question
America's commitment to the European alliance, for the price has
been so dear.
A Chance for Public
Diplomacy
It
is time to stop denying that there are problems in the relationship
between American and Europe. In the November 2003 Eurobarometer
report, 55 percent of Britons polled said America was a threat to
world peace; 42 percent disagreed. Britons cited the United States
as the third greatest threat to global peace, behind Israel and
North Korea and just ahead of Iran and Iraq. These numbers, coming
from America's greatest ally, should end any doubts that
anti-Americanism in Europe is at a zenith not seen since the
Vietnam War.
The
problem this time, however, may be even worse. What started as a
critique of specific policies, mostly relating to Iraq, has since
brought with it harsh criticism of America as a whole. Many
Europeans now criticize Americans just for being Americans, as much
as for what the United States actually does. It is a perilous time
for the alliance.
To salvage the
transatlantic relationship, it is time to return to first
principles and to separate legitimate dissent from a rewriting of
history. First, President Bush, with the beaches of Normandy as a
backdrop, must remind the huge crowds of Europeans assembled and
watching of American's sacrifices for Europe, from the Argonne in
1917 to Normandy through the Cold War. These shared experiences
should give pause even to those who harbor the harshest strains
anti-Americanism. America has sacrificed far too much to have its
commitment to the European alliance called into question as is
routinely done today in the European press. Second, the President
ought to acknowledge that the U.S./European relationship is in
peril and that he is authorizing a vastly improved effort at public
diplomacy to begin to turn the anti-American tide in Europe.
The primary reason
for these efforts is practicality. The stark reality is that if
America will need to look to Europe to cobble together the ad hoc
coalitions that characterize problem solving in the post-September
11th era, be the issue at hand al-Qaeda, trade, Iran, or
the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But the President
must also make it clear this reality applies even more to Europe,
which wields less political, economic, and military power than does
the United States. If Europe is to continue to have a say in the
world, the only fruitful policy to follow would resemble the grand
diplomatic strategy Britain has maintained since the 1956 Suez
crisis: to agree with America strategically and try to shape
collective responses tactically, from within. The French Gaullist
pipe dream of balancing American power around the globe has left
Paris, post-Iraq, with absolutely no influence in Washington. This
is not a policy French geopolitical strategists such as Cardinal
Richelieu would have approved of, as it leaves France without the
ability to significantly impact global events.
It is America and
Europe's shared history and the less sentimental present that will
drive the transatlantic alliance into the future. President Bush
would do well to remind the assembled dignitaries, from President
Chirac to Chancellor Schroeder, of all that America has been, is,
and will be for the future of the European continent.
John C. Hulsman,
Ph.D., is Research Fellow in the Kathryn and Shelby Collum Davis
Institute for International Studies, and Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., is
Fellow in Anglo-American Security Policy at The Heritage
Foundation.