but few Latin American nations sent troops to Europe. The greatest impact of France's ties to the New World during the war, and perhaps in all of French history, were the contributions of the American and Canadian forces that landed in Normandy during D-Day, and participated in the subsequent Liberation of France. In fact, General de Gaulle landed at Juno Beach, where the Canadians had first come ashore. Following the war, France entered into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with Canada and the United States to deter a repeat of France's occupation by an invading power, this time the Soviet Union. France relations with (at least this part of) the New World were now much closer than for a century, but strains were now far in coming. Both Canada and the US refused to back France's action during the Suez Crisis in 1957, and encouraged quick French decolonization in Africa. Tensions with the English-speaking countries of North America became especially tense once Charles de Gaulle became president in 1958. He upset the United States by withdrawing French forces from NATO's command structure in 1959. And he angered Canada by seeming to support Quebec's secession in his 1967 Vive le Québec libre speech in Montreal. Since the 1950s, France has also been involved in building the European Economic Community (now the European Union) into a major world trade bloc, which has often led to trade disputes with the New World countries, especially over the issue of agricultural subsidies and tariffs. 21st century Security relations between France and the United States were greatly strengthened by the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and France's participation in the American-led invasion of Afghanistan. This closeness was short lived, however. Political relations between France and the United States were strained by vocal French popular and governmental opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. However, most New World nations, especially the more populous ones, sided with France and not the United States on this occasion. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua participated in Multi-National Force – Iraq, whereas the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela were publicly in opposition to the Iraq War. Since the replacement of George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac by Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, respectively, Franco-US relations have improved. France has been involved in disputes with Latin American countries, however, including