Posted on 06/06/2023 3:22:42 PM PDT by matt04
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.
IMHO, one of the greatest speeches in modern history by one of the greatest presidents.
Bump
The name is Ronaldus Magnus Reagan.
I saw that speech in real time. It filled me with a sense of patriotism that was overwhelming. Peggy Noonan wrote the speech but, with Reagan, you knew he wasn’t just reading words.
These truly heroic and brave individuals are the same people the Left says are evil.
Can you imagine the senile moron in office trying to give this speech today? “These are...uh...uh...the boys...or girls, if they want to be...of Point the Duck...and...uh, uh, anyway...”
-end of remarks-
Noonan’s book “What I Saw at the Revolution” (Reagan years) was really good. She said one of the things about being a good speech writer is being around Reagan, learning what he believes, his personality, etc. so one can write stuff like it is coming from him. Plus he would spend lots of time reading and editing each speech.
Each speech needed to be reviewed by all of the various cabinet people too to make sure it lined up with U.S. policies.
On his Berlin Wall speech Reagan added in the line “Mr. Gorbachev - TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!” to the original speech. Well, it was taken out by the State Department. The speech went through numerous reviews and each time Reagan would add the line, and State would take it out.
On the way to the speech in the Limo, Reagan penciled it back in again!
President Reagan was perfectly aware that the State Department (especially its INR intel unit) was led by and composed of squishes. Just a few months prior to Reagan’s speech, on 1 September 1983, the Soviets shot down a Korean civilian airliner (which had an American congressman aboard). The State Department jumped through hoops trying to cover for the Russians, attempting at first to say that somehow it was the USA’s fault, and then blaming the Koreans. The actions taken by some DOS senior leaders was disgraceful. Thus, one can thank Ronald Reagan for one of the great lines of history, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
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