PARIS -- World leaders with the power to make war but a duty to preserve peace solemnly marked the end of World War I's slaughter 100 years ago at commemorations Sunday that drove home the message "never again" but also exposed the globe's new political fault lines.
As U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and dozens of other heads of state and government listened in silence, French President Emmanuel Macron used the occasion, as its host, to sound a powerful and sobering warning about the fragility of peace and the dangers of nationalism and of nations that put themselves first, above the collective good.
"The old demons are rising again, ready to complete their task of chaos and of death," Macron said.
"Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism," he said. "In saying 'Our interests first, whatever happens to the others,' you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: Its moral values."
He denounced fringe ideologies that have become more mainstream, warping religious beliefs and setting loose extremist forces on a "sinister course once again that could undermine the legacy of peace we thought we had forever sealed."
His words during the Armistice Day ceremony were intended for a global audience. But they also represented a pointed rebuke to Trump, Putin and others among the more than 60 world leaders in attendance
Trump has proudly declared himself a nationalist. But if Trump felt singled out by Macron's remarks, he didn't show it. He later described the commemoration as "very beautiful."
As well as spelling out the horrific costs of conflict to those with arsenals capable of waging a World War III, the ceremony also served up a joyful reminder of the intense sweetness of peace, when high school students read from letters that soldiers and civilians wrote 100 years ago when guns finally fell silent on the Western Front.
"I only hope the soldiers who died for this cause are looking down upon the world today," American soldier Capt. Charles S. Normington wrote on Nov. 11, 1918, in one of the letters. "The whole world owes this moment of real joy to the heroes who are not here to help enjoy it."
The commemorations started late, overshooting the centenary of the exact moment when, 100 years earlier at 11 a.m., an eerie silence replaced the thunder of war on the front lines. Macron recalled that 1 billion shells fell on France alone from 1914-1918.
As bells marking the armistice hour rang across Paris and in many nations ravaged by the four years of carnage, Macron and other leaders were still on their way to the centennial site at the Arc de Triomphe.
Under a sea of black umbrellas, a line of leaders led by Macron and his wife, Brigitte, marched in silence on the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees, after disembarking from their buses.
British Prime Minister Theresa May did not attend, remaining in London to preside over a war remembrance there, though she had visited France last week to lay wreaths at military cemeteries and meet with Macron. Chinese President Xi Jinping also was not present.
Trump arrived separately, in a motorcade that drove past three topless protesters with anti-war slogans on their chests who somehow got through the rows of security and were quickly bundled away by police. The Femen group claimed responsibility. French authorities said the three women faced charges of sexual exhibitionism. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited security protocols for the presidential motorcade's solo trip down the grand flag-lined avenue, which was closed to traffic.
Last to arrive was Putin, who shook Trump's hand and flashed him a thumbs-up. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was positioned in pride of place between Trump and Macron, an eloquent symbol of victors and vanquished now standing together, shoulder to shoulder. Overhead, fighter jets ripped through the sky, trailing red, white and blue smoke in homage to the French flag.
The geographical spread of the heads of state and government who attended, silent and reflective, showed how the "war to end all wars" left few corners of the earth untouched but which, little more than two decades later, was followed so quickly and catastrophically by World War II.
TRUMP ALONE
The gulf between Trump's "America First" credo and European leaders was starkly underscored later Sunday, when Trump went his own way.
He visited an American cemetery outside Paris at precisely the moment that Macron, Merkel and other dignitaries were opening a peace forum where the French leader again sounded the alarm about crumbling international harmony as he ruminated about the legacy of the morning's commemorations.
Trump has jarred European allies with his past actions. He has imposed tariffs on the European Union, pulled the U.S. out of the landmark Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal and suggested he might be willing to pull the U.S. out of NATO if member countries don't significantly boost their defense spending. Trump's eagerness to get along with the Russian leader -- in spite of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and numerous other aggressive moves in recent years -- has alarmed those who view Russia as a growing threat.
Trump has also repeatedly branded himself a "nationalist," despite criticism from some that the term has negative connotations. At a news conference last week, Trump defended his use of the phrase. "You know what the word is? I love our country," he said, adding: "You have nationalists. You have globalists. I also love the world and I don't mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. We have a lot of problems."
But Trump did not broach the divide as he paid tribute Sunday to U.S. and allied soldiers killed in World War I during "a horrible, horrible war" that marked America's emergence as a world power.
"We are gathered together at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to the brave Americans who gave their last breath in that mighty struggle," Trump said at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial in the suburbs of Paris, where more than 1,500 Americans who died in the war are buried.
"It is our duty to preserve the civilization they defended and to protect the peace they so nobly gave their lives to secure one century ago," he said after spending a moment, standing alone amid the cemetery's white crosses, holding a black umbrella.
Trump delivered the speech as other leaders were gathered for the inaugural Paris Peace Forum, which aims to revive collective governance and international cooperation to tackle global challenges. Afterward he headed back to Washington.
While praising France for "a wonderful two days," Trump described his rainy stop at the American cemetery at Suresnes as "the highlight of the trip."
At the Paris Peace Forum on Sunday, Merkel turned to an event 70 years ago -- the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
That document, which has underpinned human-rights agreements since 1948, would struggle to see the light of day in 2018, Merkel said at the forum hosted by Macron and attended by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. She lamented a world order weighed down by growing isolationism and open conflicts.
"I ask myself often, imagine we, the international community today, would have to establish such a declaration on human rights. Would we manage that?" the German chancellor asked. "I fear, not."
It's Merkel's latest riff on the cracking foundation of the post-World War II order, especially the deterioration of trans-Atlantic ties under Trump's presidency. Merkel told a beer-tent rally in Munich last year that alliances that had firmed up for 70 years were "to some extent over." She made her comments days after Trump used a NATO summit to attack allies for spending too little on defense, and shortly before he withdrew from the Paris climate accord.
Merkel drew applause at the forum for defending the United Nations, which approved the human-rights declaration in the French capital three years after the end of World War II.
"Of course, it's beset by daily routines -- they have to do that behind the ideals," Merkel said of the world body. "But is that a reason to say that we would be better off without the United Nations? I say very clearly no. You can destroy institutions quickly, but rebuilding them is unbelievable difficult."
Taking the stage to applause at the forum, Macron avoided presenting the weekend's event as a success. Instead, he said history would remember the image of multiple world leaders whose countries were once at war gathered in peace under the Arc.
The question, Macron said, was how that image would be interpreted.
"Will it be the symbol of a durable peace among nations?" he asked. "Or, on the contrary, a photograph of a final moment of unity before the world descends into a new disorder?"
Information for this article was contributed by John Leicester, Raf Casert, Lori Hinnant, Angela Charlton, Sylvie Corbet, Elaine Ganley, Thomas Adamson, Darlene Superville, Jill Colvin, Robert Burns and Julie Pace of The Associated Press; by Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg News; and by David Nakamura, Seung Min Kim, James McAuley and Anton Troianovski of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/12/2018