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Crises of commemoration: Cold War, decolonization and the bungled 1954 D-Day commemoration


 In 1954, international dignitaries and veterans joined the commemoration of the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy, though not everything went according to plan. For the French organizers, chief among them Gaullist deputy Raymond Triboulet, the event was intended to communicate a unifying, pro-Allied message amid a turbulent political climate. By June 1954, France had recently suffered a decisive defeat at Dien Bien Phu and was politically gripped by the divisive prospect of a European Defence Community. In debates over these crises, war memories surfaced and France’s experience of the Occupation and Liberation enflamed passions. For many who attended the Normandy ceremony in 1954, the missteps of organizers created tension and upset, endangering Allied participation in the Paris Liberation ceremonies to follow. This moment of disjuncture illuminates how currents of memory, international diplomacy, decolonization and broader Cold War tensions all intersected and influenced each other on the Normandy beaches.