WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Colin Powell is reaching out again to France to try to overcome differences that were exacerbated by the U.S. war with Iraq.
“The values that pull France and the United States together are far more powerful than any problems that come along and will be surmounted,” Powell said at a ceremony.
The State Department is marking the start of a traveling exhibit of the Marshall Plan, the program that helped France and other European nations recover from World War II.
The exhibit, which also honors George C. Marshall, the Truman-era secretary of state who developed the massive U.S. assistance program in 1947, will be sent to American colleges and universities. A wing dedicated to Marshall is under construction at the department and a portrait of Marshall, who was Army chief of staff during World War II, will be on display there.