For Bush, a challenging moment
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France -- When President Bush speaks today amid the clean white gravestones of the US military cemetery here, he will stand in the shadows of his predecessors -- of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who led the nation in prayer on this day 60 years ago, of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who directed the allied troops who stormed the beaches of Normandy.
Ronald Reagan made one of the most memorable speeches of his presidency on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, calling for perseverance among the United States and its European allies in toppling the Soviet Union.
And on the 50th anniversary, Bill Clinton, who delivered what is widely regarded as a defining speech of his presidency, stood overlooking the beaches of Normandy and said:
''We are the sons and daughters you saved from tyranny's reach. . . . Five years ago, the miracle of liberation was repeated as the rotting timbers of communism came tumbling down. Now we stand at the start of a new day."
Bush also arrives at a turning point in history. His unilateral approach in the war in Iraq has alienated many in Europe, so the president will have to be tread carefully in his speech, particularly if he attempts to compare the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime with the liberation of Europe during World War II, according to European political analysts.
Unlike Reagan's call for unity in the Cold War, the Iraq conflict has left a deep rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance. And unlike Clinton's celebration of a new, post-Cold War era of international unity of purpose, Bush faces lingering mistrust of his administration's intentions in Iraq.
''Mr. Bush should be very cautious in equating Normandy and World War II with the war in Iraq," said Guillaume Parmentier, of France's International Research Institute, a Paris-based think tank, adding that ''the French government and the French people are quite likely to react negatively to that if he does."
In Paris and especially in the villages of Normandy, there is deep affection for the American and British veterans of D-Day. But many French people also express a sense that the American government under Bush has changed, and has betrayed some of the ideals that rose out of the ashes of World War II, such as respect for international law and the United Nations.
''A lot of people feel today that it is not the same America," Parmentier said.
Richard Morgan, the press attach for the British Embassy in Paris, said any comparison between the war in Iraq and World War II ''must be drawn carefully."
''I think President Bush knows that, and he will put the war on terror and the war in Iraq in the context of a challenge of our time. . . . That's not tantamount to saying what we're doing in Iraq is right. There's a way to do it and not deepen any divisions," Morgan said.
At a press conference yesterday in Paris, Bush seemed to do just that, saying there was a need for unity over Iraq.
President Jacques Chirac of France, asked whether the comparison between the conflict in Iraq and World War II was appropriate, answered politely, saying that it was ''difficult to compare historical situations."
Former US senator George McGovern, a bomber pilot in World War II who was among American veterans awarded the Legion of Honor medal at a ceremony in Paris yesterday, said: ''The French government and French people can't understand the invasion of Iraq, and neither can I nor a lot of Americans. . . . There are some serious repairs that are needed in the trans-Atlantic alliance. I hope President Bush will have that in mind when he speaks."
Yesterday, the beaches of Normandy were covered with troops and security forces in preparation for the visit today by Bush and 16 other heads of state.
Among those attending the ceremonies will be Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the first German leader to attend a D-Day anniversary in France. President Vladimir V. Putin will be the first Russian head of state to attend.
In one of the largest security operations staged on French soil, some 30,000 soldiers were deployed to protect the weekend ceremonies. Antiaircraft missile batteries, warplanes, and helicopters were in northern France to protect a no-fly zone extending between the ports of Cherbourg and Deauville.
A flotilla set off from Portsmouth Harbor in southern Britain for Caen, in Normandy, carrying British and American veterans who braved fierce gunfire from Nazi troops to land on the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944.
Yesterday, Britain's heir to the throne, Prince Charles, was in Normandy to view the landing of British and Canadian paratroopers at the village of Ranville, the site of the first D-Day air drops in Normandy.
Material from Globe wire services was included in this report. 
