June 6, 1984, American Cemetery, Normandy: "Forty summers have past since the battle that you men fought here... You were young the day you stormed 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 compelled you to set aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? ... What inspired 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 in the next.... It was the deep knowledge - and pray God that we have not lost it - that there is a profound difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest... You came here to liberate, not to conquer -- and so you did not doubt." ~Ronald Wilson Reagan, President of the United States
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 21:53:19 +0000
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