U.S. military forces played a key role in liberating France from the Nazi occupation. The Marshall Plan not only helped reconstruct the French economy but served as a model for European economic integration and the creation of the European Economic Community and the European Union. Today, France is a major economic partner of the United States. The United States is the largest direct foreign investor in France. This investment has created an estimated 370,000 jobs in the United States.
Tourism is another important link between the two countries.
The U.S. tops the polls of places French people want to visit. Each year about 2 million Americans go to France, while 1 million French citizens visit the United States. In the political arena, France and the United States work closely on global and regional issues, both bilaterally and through multilateral organizations. France and the United States are working together to define a new European security structure. The two countries were early proponents of NATO enlargement, of founding the changes in transatlantic security upon a clear understanding with a democratic Russia, and of adapting NATO internally to address post-Cold War realities.