REMEMBERING THE DEAD

"When they were young, they saved the world," President Clinton declared of the American forces who swept into France 50 years ago today. Despite the plethora of head-of-state types on hand at the ceremonies, old soldiers from the Allied armies took center stage. D-day claimed thousands of lives and marked just the beginning of the long assault to push back the Germans, who finally surrounded a year later. In all, 405,000 American soldiers perished in World War II.