Remarks at the U.S. Ranger
Monument
Pointe du Hoc, France
June 6, 1984
One of two speeches commemorating the 40th
Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, this speech was delivered at the
site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where
veterans of the Normandy Invasion, and others, had assembled for the
ceremony. Later during the day, President Reagan spoke at Omaha
Beach, France.
1,988 words.
We're here to mark that day in history when the
Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty.
For four 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.
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.
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 two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
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.
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.
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.''
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Americans who fought here that morning knew
word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home.
They thought--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.
Something else helped the men of D-Day: their
rock-hard 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.''
These are the things that impelled them; these
are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 lessen the risks of war, now and forever.
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.
We will pray forever that some day 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.
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.
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.''
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.
Thank you very much, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:20 p.m. at the
site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where
veterans of the Normandy invasion had assembled for the ceremony.
Following his remarks, the President unveiled
memorial plaques to the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions. Then, escorted
by Phil Rivers, superintendent of the Normandy American Cemetery, the
President and Mrs. Reagan proceeded to the interior of the
observation bunker. On leaving the bunker, the President and Mrs.
Reagan greeted each of the veterans.
Other Allied countries represented at the
ceremony by their heads of state and government were: Queen Elizabeth
II of the United Kingdom, Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands, King Olav
V of Norway, King Baudouin I of Belgium, Grand Duke Jean of
Luxembourg, and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau of
Canada.
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Reagan's Remarks at the U.S. Ranger Monument
One of two speeches commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the D-Day
Invasion, this speech was delivered at the site of the U.S. Ranger
Monument at Pointe du Hoc, France, where veterans of the Normandy
Invasion, and others, had assembled for the ceremony.
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