President Reagan’s D-Day Speech  at Pointe du Hoc – June 6, 1984

President Reagan’s D-Day Speech at Pointe du Hoc – June 6, 1984

President Reagan’s D-Day Speech

at Pointe du Hoc – June 6, 1984

Colleagues,

Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the risky allied landing at Normandy.  Despite fierce resistance from the Germans entrenched along the shores and cliffs, the D-Day invasion succeeded.  The assault was marked by extraordinary bravery and horrible carnage.  The challenge was particularly difficult for the Rangers, who were assigned the objective of seizing the cliffs of Pointe de Hoc.

In 1984 President Ronald Reagan and allied leaders attending the G-7 Economic Summit left London and gathered in Normandy to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, the difficult but eventually successful battle that turned the tide of the war in Europe. My God, it hardly seems possible that it was 32 years ago!

President Reagan gave two extraordinarily moving speeches that day, one at Omaha Beach with French President Francois Mitterrand, and another, more remembered, at Pointe du Hoc–the cliffs the Rangers scaled in the face of German artillery firing directly down on them. This was a U.S. only ceremony, and many of the Rangers who survived that assault were on hand to hear the President that day. I was fortunate to be in charge of coordinating U.S., French and allied participation in the events, and it was a moment that none of us there will ever forget.

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President Reagan’s speech that day (Peggy Noonan was the primary drafter) was one of the most memorable he gave in his Presidency.  In addition to extolling the bravery of the invasion forces, Reagan used the occasion to urge the Allies to stand firm in the face of aggression (now from Moscow), but did reach out to the Soviet leadership—saying he was prepared for an improvement in relations, if the Kremlin were as well (remember, this was still a time when the Soviet Union was led by aging apparatchiks, at that moment by the 84-year old Konstantin Chernenko!). I think Reagan was anticipating significant change in the Kremlin, and it came with the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev just eight months later.

Here is a link to the President’s speech—I strongly urge you to listen to Reagan’s short but poignant address, and reflect on the significance of this anniversary.

— Tyrus W. Cobb

Click here: YouTube – Normandy Speech: Ceremony Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, D-Day 6/6/84

Later that day President Reagan and French President Francois Mitterrand spoke at a joint commemoration of the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach.  While Reagan and Mitterrand had a prickly relationship, that day both spoke movingly of the casualties suffered in the allied forces’ landings against extensive German resistance.

Here is a photo of the President and Mrs. Reagan pausing to spend time with those who perished at Omaha Beach.

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And here is a photo of the joint allied forces Color Guards on Omaha Beach that afternoon.

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All in all, a most memorable day– the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings some 72 years ago.

Ty

P.S. After the ceremonies we helicoptered back to London where the G7 Economic Summit began the next morning.  Of course, since west Germany’s Helmut Kohl and Japan’s Yasuhiro Nakasone were not invited to the allied ceremonies in France, I can imagine there might have been a little bit of embarrassing conversation at the outset of the Summit.  Like, maybe Thatcher saying, “Hey Helmut and Yasuhiro.  Sorry we missed you yesterday.  Had to bop over to France for a bit of a ceremony.  Harrod’s was having quite a sale.  Hope you were able to catch it…. And of course you got to ride the double decker bus around Piccadilly, didn’t you?”