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We stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of - or inches of sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero."Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did."Someday, Lis, I'll go back," said Private First Class Peter Robert Zannata, of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, and first...

Extract from president Ronald Reagan's remarks at the US Ranger Monument on the 40th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1984. 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...

"Ronald Reagan, D-Day.....and the War on Terror" It is somehow fitting that Ronald Reagan passed away on the day before D-Day. It is somehow fitting that perhaps the greatest President in my lifetime (and could be argued...in any lifetime) passed away just about the time that 60 years ago...men were parachuting into France...in a beginning of the end of the evil that was the Nazi Empire. It is somehow fitting that the man who, in an absolute display of faith in the American dream and capabilities almost by himself caused the beginning of the destruction of the evil that was...

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...

Here is the complete text of the speech delivered by President Ronald Reagan on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984, at the Pointe du Hoc Memorial in Normandy, France: We stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of - or inches of sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero." Some who survived the battle of...

"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 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." President Ronald Reagan Normandy, June 6, 1984

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html Speech number 60.

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is no doubt the most eloquent testimonial to the courage of American soldiers ever penned by a U.S. president. But Ronald Reagan's words on June 6, 1984, are likewise profound and beautiful. President Reagan was speaking at the World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument, which overlooks Omaha Beach in Normandy. It was the 40th anniversary of the attack made by the 2nd Ranger Battalion led by Lt. Col. James E. Rudder up the steep cliffs at the beach on that momentous day. Loss of life was very high. "We're here to mark that day...

40th Anniversary of D-Day Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, June 6, 1984 We stand today at a place of battle, one that 40 years ago saw and felt the worst of war. Men bled and died here for a few feet of -- or inches of -- sand, as bullets and shellfire cut through their ranks. About them, General Omar Bradley later said, "Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero." Some who survived the battle of June 6, 1944, are here today. Others who hoped to return never did. "Someday, Lis, I'll go back," said...

Conservative student group Turning Point USA caused a stir last week by posting pages online from a textbook used at the University of South Carolina. The book calls Ronald Reagan “sexist” and says conservatives “take a basically pessimistic view of human nature” — one in which “people are conceived of as being corrupt.” Several avowed conservatives balked not just at the negative portrayal of Reagan but also at the idea that the conservative persuasion contains a measure of pessimism. On this point, the textbook is right and they are wrong. Russell Kirk was the man credited by William F. Buckley...

The more things change....

Lech Walesa said that there would not be a free Poland without Ronald Reagan, during the unveiling of a statue in Warsaw of the late American president on Monday.The former Solidarity leader said that “as a participant in these events,” it was “inconceivable” that such changes would have come about without the last American president during the post-1945 cold-war era. Walesa added that thirty years ago, it seemed that the fall of the communist system would not be possible without a nuclear war. The bronze statue of Reagan has been installed not far from the American Embassy, on Ujazdowskie Avenue,...

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National Security: Aiming at a world where nuclear weapons are obsolete, the administration's nuclear posture review leaves a world without American nuclear weapons and the backbone to use them. After his stunning bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto lamented that all that had been accomplished was to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. Under policies announced by the Obama administration, a devastating chemical or biological attack on this country might merely awaken our very own Hamlet and fill him with a terrible sense of angst. We have said before that rather...

Where were you on January 28th, 1986? Were you in a classroom watching the first teacher go into space? Do you remember how you felt when you saw the Challenger explode soon after it left the earth? CNN reports that about 17% of Americans were watching when the disaster occurred. One hour later, 85% had heard the news. It is estimated that 48% of 9-13 year-olds were watching. Teacher Christa Macauliffe was supposed to be the first teacher in space, but she never made it. She died in the explosion along with the six astronauts accompanying her. Most of today's...

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and out of office for twenty years, still has the landslide support of the American people that helped him win two historic terms in the 1980s.An overlooked poll released last week by Public Policy Polling of over 1200 registered voters showed the Republican icon Reagan was the most popular of the five most recent presidents with 41 percent, impeached Democrat Bill Clinton was a distant second at 27 percent.The current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama, came in third with 22 percent, thanks to a splintering of support from African-Americans....

November 20, 2007, 7:00 a.m. Reagan, No RacistRacing through the record. By Deroy Murdock With the 2008 presidential race in fifth gear, two Leftist commentators are trying to sideswipe the Right by running over the late, great Ronald Wilson Reagan. They are driving the ugliest vehicle available: accusations of racism. “Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism,” columnist Paul Krugman wrote last September. Consequently, he continued, Ronald Reagan “started his 1980 campaign with a speech supporting states’ rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Mississippi,...

Over the past few weeks there have been a number of commentaries about Ronald Reagan’s legacy, specifically about whether he exploited the white backlash against the civil rights movement. The controversy unfortunately obscures the larger point, which should be undeniable: the central role of this backlash in the rise of the modern conservative movement. The centrality of race — and, in particular, of the switch of Southern whites from overwhelming support of Democrats to overwhelming support of Republicans — is obvious from voting data. For example, everyone knows that white men have turned away from the Democrats over God, guns,...

POLITICAL mythologies endure. One myth that is enjoying a revival in a year when Republican presidential candidates are comparing themselves to Ronald Reagan, their iconic hero, is the notion that Mr. Reagan defeated President Jimmy Carter in 1980 by a coded appeal to white-supremacist voters. The core of this myth is the claim that Mr. Reagan scored a political masterstroke when he spoke on Aug. 3, 1980, at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi. At the fair, Mr. Reagan told a cheering and mostly white audience, “I believe in states’ rights” and that as president he would do all he...

Today, I’m going to write about a slur. It’s a distortion that’s been around for a while, but has spread like a weed over the past few months. It was concocted for partisan reasons: to flatter the... --snip-- The truth is more complicated. --snip-- Reagan’s speech at the fair was short and cheerful, and can be heard at: www.onlinemadison.com/ftp/reagan/reaganneshoba.mp3. He told several jokes, and remarked: “I know speaking to this crowd, I’m speaking to a crowd that’s 90 percent Democrat.” He spoke mostly about inflation and the economy, but in the middle of a section on schools, he said this:...