June 6, 2023
RONALD
REAGAN, “REMARKS AT A CEREMONY COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
NORMANDY INVASION, D-DAY,” POINTE DU HOC, FRANCE (6 JUNE 1984)
[1] We’re
here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to
reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been
under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps,
millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed
for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and
fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
[2] We stand
on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft,
but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of
men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of
cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped
off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their
mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb
these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had
been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be
trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
[3] The
Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers — the edge of the cliffs shooting
down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers
began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began
to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When
one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They
climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers
pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of
these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and
twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
[4] Behind
me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the
top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
[5] These
are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are
the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end
a war.
[6]
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem.
You are men who in your “lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air
signed with your honor.”
[7] I think
I know what you may be thinking right now — thinking “we were just part of a
bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.” Well, everyone was. Do you
remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago
today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for
help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were
dreaming. Well, they weren’t. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his
bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into
the ground around him.
[8] Lord
Lovat was with him — Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got
to the bridge, “Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” as if he’d been delayed by a
traffic jam, when in truth he’d just come from the bloody fighting on Sword
Beach, which he and his men had just taken.
[9] There
was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy
and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage
of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They
knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit
Juno Beach, they never looked back.
[10] All of
these men were part of a rollcall of honor with names that spoke of a pride as
bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland’s 24th
Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of
England’s armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard’s
“Matchbox Fleet” and you, the American Rangers.
[11] Forty
summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the
day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the
deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did
you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation
and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met
here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief;
it was loyalty and love.
[12] The men of Normandy had
faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all
humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on
the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that
there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation
and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer,
and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to
doubt.
[13] You all knew that some
things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is
worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever
devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight
tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
[14] The
Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading
through the darkness back home. They fought — or felt in their hearts, though
they couldn’t know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4
a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in
Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.
[15] Something else helped the
men of D-day: their rockhard belief that Providence would have a great hand in
the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause.
And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his
parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your
heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we’re about
to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the
darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: “I will not fail thee nor forsake
thee.”
[16] These
are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity
of the Allies.
[17] When
the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned
to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new
peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies
summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell
here. They rebuilt a new Europe together.
[18] There
was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom
had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall
plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall plan led
to the Atlantic alliance — a great alliance that serves to this day as our
shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.
[19] In
spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the
war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness
of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and
East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not
leave when peace came. They’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding,
almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, allied forces still stand on
this continent. Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one
purpose — to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are
memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.
[20] We in
America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be
here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea,
rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism
never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments
with an expansionist intent.
[21] But we
try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to
negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the
spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome
more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can [listen]
lessen the risks of war, now and forever.
[22] It’s
fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people
during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to
all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in
the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth
the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are
ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that
they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for
peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a
changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action.
[23] We will
pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly
today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our
freedom, and to the alliance that protects it.
[24] We are bound today by
what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We’re
bound by reality. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United
States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued
freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now.
Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.
[25] Here, in this place where
the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our
actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the
words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee nor forsake
thee.”
[26] Strengthened by their
courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us
continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.
[27] Thank
you very much, and God bless you all.
