to these circumstances. ten years ago president bush was late. there was bad weather here. and president chirac was here. and his staff came to a great anxiety because it was going to throw off the whole day because the lunch was going to go on too long. so jim jones who was then the commander of nato and grew up in france spoke perfect french was listening in. and chirac looked at the staff and said what are we having for lunch? and they reeled off the eight courses they were going to have for lunch. he said, skip the cheese course. we ll be on time. how french. that s what they did. you know in listening to the both of you and president s schedule and the dueling dinners in paris, those of us in the media, it often occurs to me we really give short shrift to the enormity of the job of being president of the united states. i mean we criticize and yet he s bouncing from dinner to dinner with the fate of several countries including ours an
the fact is that putin was not originally expected here. it hadn t been traditional for the russian leaders, even though obviously they suffered grievously in world war ii. once he inserted himself into this ceremony it had to be acknowledged. but at the same time it s awkward for president obama, when you talked about that dinner or the dueling dinners last night, chuck todd at one point said it reminded him of kind of divorced parents trying to accommodate, you know the christmas or thanksgiving holidays. the fact is that president obama went to a restaurant with his national security adviser, secretary of state and ambassador as well and president hollande. and then president hollande went back to the elysees palace and gave the royal treatment to president putin. i think president putin might have gotten the better of the menu last night. i have a story about the ability of the french to adapt
so alex as president hollande continues and i continue to regret not listening to marie champagne, my high school french teacher, the ceremonies continue here. yes. yeah, they do. you know as we see the president gesturing there and making an impassioned speech and again, you know i ve been listening. it s just not quite good enough to go on record with my french. i was wondering, tom and mike and andrea when we talk about that which happened and our inability to fully ever capture it unless you were there, certainly a lot of incredible films have done their best to do so. are there any which stand out in your mind as being perhaps the most accurate of what we believe that day represented? the one that comes to mind for me is saving private ryan and that first onslaught, you know those almost unbearable first 20 25 minutes.
hitler s wall was breached letting loose patton s army to pour into france. within a week the world s bloodiest beach had had become the world s busiest port. within a month, 1 million allied troops thundered through normandy into europe. and as our armies marched across the continent, one pilot said it looked as if the very crust of the earth had shaken loose. the arc di triomphe lit up for the first time in years to shouts of vive de france. [ speaking in french ] of course even as we gather here, we remember that freedom s victory was also made possible
here in normandy at the american cemetery world war ii war itself was a shared experience in our country, as we spoke about it earlier this hour. everyone knew someone who was serving. every family had someone serving. and everyone served at home and sacrificed at home as well as those who made the ultimate sacrifice going overseas whether in the pacific or the atlantic. in the later years, i think since the first gulf war, war has taken on people think it s a video game that they can watch or play and very few go and serve. yeah. what did he say, alex? you speak french. unfortunately, i was listening to you, mike. and as i say that though here we go with the president. we ll take a listen. president hollande the people of france friends,