For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 6, 2004
President Bush, President Chirac Mark 60th Anniversary of D-Day
Remarks by President Bush and President Chirac on Marking the 60th Anniversary of D-Day
The American Cemetery
Normandy, France
PRESIDENT CHIRAC: D-Day veterans, Mr. President of the United
States of America, ladies and gentlemen: We stand here on hallowed
ground, in a place engraved forever in our memories for the role it has
played in our history against the dark night of oblivion. We are
gathered here today to pay homage, to pay tribute to the soldiers of
freedom, to the legendary heroes of Operation Overlord. And against
the swift passage of time, our presence together today is, indeed, a
reminder to younger generations of the true significance of a war that
continues to shape our understanding of the world.
France will never forget. She will never forget that 6th of June,
1944, the day hope was reborn and rekindled. She will never forget
those men who made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate our soil, our
native land, our continent from the yoke of Nazi barbarity and its
murderous folly. Nor will it ever forget its debt to America, its
everlasting friend, and to its allies -- all of them -- thanks to whom
Europe, reunited at last, now lives in peace, freedom and democracy.
Sixty years ago, the fate of France, of Europe, and of the world
was played out on these Normandy beaches. Here, on Omaha Beach, on
bloody Omaha, today as we stand in respectful silence, our emotion is
undimmed at the spectacle of these rows upon rows of crosses, where
your companions, your brothers at arms, fallen on the field of honor,
now rest for all of eternity. Our hearts are indeed heavy as we
contemplate their courage, their self-sacrifice, their generosity. And
our spirit is indeed uplifted by the absolute ideals of these
youngsters who offered up their last breath to save the world.
I speak for every French man and woman in expressing our nation's
eternal gratitude and unparalleled debt that our democracies owe them.
I salute their courage, that flight of the human soul, which, by their
refusal of enslavement, altered and, indeed, reshaped the course of
history, and so conferred a new stature on mankind, upon nations and
peoples. I salute the memory and the sacrifice of all these fighters.
Overcoming their fear, all fears, and by the rightness of their
struggle and the strength of their ideals, they raised the human
conscience onto a higher plane.
Mr. President of the United States, this day of remembrance begins
here at Colleville-sur-Mer, in this cemetery, where, for all time,
America honors its sons who died so young in the name of freedom. They
are now our sons also. And to the entire American nation, sharing this
solemn moment with us, to all those men and women who paid the ultimate
price of those heroic days, the message of France is, indeed, a message
of friendship and brotherhood, a message of thanks, of appreciation,
and gratitude.
For over 200 years now, the same humanist values have shaped the
destinies of France and America. Our two nations have never ceased to
share common love of liberty and law, of justice and democracy. These
values are rooted in the very depths of our cultures and civilization.
They are the spirit of our peoples. They are the heart and soul of our
nations. From the plains of Yorktown to the beaches of Normandy, in
the suffering of those global conflicts that have rent the past
century, our two countries, our two peoples have stood shoulder to
shoulder in the brotherhood of blood spilled, in defense of a certain
ideal of mankind, of a certain vision of the world -- the vision that
lies at the heart of the United Nations Charter.
Having experienced the long ordeal of war and occupation, France
knows full-well just how much it owes to the United States of America,
to the commitment of President Roosevelt, and to the leadership of
General Eisenhower. Each of us, each and every French family cherishes
the memory of those moments of joy that followed the D-Day landings.
And we all remember, also, the terrible suffering during the course of
the battle waged, the suffering of the soldiers, but also of the
civilians.
And this friendship remains intact to this day. It is confident;
it is indeed demanding; but it is founded in mutual respect. America
is our eternal ally, and that alliance and solidarity are all the
stronger for having been forged in those terrible hours. And in
America's time of trial, when barbarity wreaks death, havoc and
destruction in America and elsewhere in the world, as in the tragedy of
September the 11th, 2001, a date burned forever into our memories and
hearts, France stands side by side every man and woman in America.
Their grief is our grief. In conferring the Cross of Chevalier in the
Order of the Legion of Honor this morning on 100 American veterans here
today, I have wanted the name of every French man and woman to bear
witness once again, once more, to this ancient friendship and to our
gratitude.
Ladies and gentlemen, this moment of remembrance is also a moment
for words of peace, for the glorious combat of these men to whom we are
paying tribute today places upon us a duty -- a duty vis-a-vis the
future, and indeed, for the present. Sixty years ago, these soldiers
of freedom took up arms to ensure the triumph of the values to which
men and women everywhere aspire and subscribe -- a vision of humanity
and human dignity, of peace, freedom, and democracy. But there is no
end to this struggle of man against himself, in a dangerous world where
violence and hatred too often stir up men, and even peoples. The
message of these heroes, the heroes of the "longest day," the flame
that our forefathers bore so proudly and have now bequeathed onto us
are our common heritage, which implies a corresponding duty of
remembrance for us -- a duty of remembrance, a duty to recall this
still recent past when fanaticism, the rejection of those who are
different from us, the rejection of others, cast men, women and
children into the night, the fog of the death camps.
We must never forget that without a compass, without remaining
faithful to the lessons of history, there can be no future. We have
also a duty of vigilance, also a duty to fight ruthlessly all these
upsurges and seedbeds of hatred that feed on ignorance on obscurantism
and on intolerance. And we have a duty of remaining faithful to our
values so that our generation may build and pass on to our children a
world of progress and freedom, as is indeed their birthright -- to
build that society which bears the hallmark of respect and dialogue, of
tolerance and solidarity that was the very quintessence of the struggle
we are commemorating today, to keep alive for all time the spirit of
hope. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President and Mrs. Chirac; Secretary Powell
and Secretary Principi; General Myers; members of the United States
Congress; my fellow Americans; and ladies and gentlemen: It is a high
honor to represent the American people here at Normandy on the 6th of
June, 2004.
Twenty summers ago, another American President came here to
Normandy to pay tribute to the men of D-Day. He was a courageous man,
himself, and a gallant leader in the cause of freedom. And today we
honor the memory of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.)
Mr. President, thank you for your gracious welcome to the reunion
of allies. History reminds us that France was America's first friend
in the world. With us today are Americans who first saw this place at
a distance, in the half-light of a Tuesday morning long ago. Time and
providence have brought them back to see once more the beaches and the
cliffs, the crosses and the Stars of David.
Generations to come will know what happened here, but these men
heard the guns. Visitors will always pay respects at this cemetery,
but these veterans come looking for a name, and remembering faces and
voices from a lifetime ago. Today, we honor all the veterans of
Normandy and all their comrades who never left. (Applause.)
On this day in 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the
American people, not with a speech, but with a prayer. He prayed that
God would bless America's sons and lead them straight and true. He
continued, "They will need thy blessings. They will be sore tired by
night and by day without rest, until victory is won. The darkness will
be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the
violences of war."
As Americans prayed along, more than 12,000 Allied aircraft and
about 5,000 Naval vessels were carrying out General Eisenhower's order
of the day. In this massive undertaking, there was a plan for
everything -- except for failure. Eisenhower said, "This operation is
planned as a victory, and that's the way it is going to be."
They had waited for one break in the weather, and then it came.
Men were sent in by parachute and by glider. And on this side of the
Channel, through binoculars and gun sights, German soldiers could see
coming their way the greatest armada anyone had ever seen. In the lead
were hundreds of landing craft, carrying brave and frightened men.
Only the ones who made that crossing can know what it was like. They
tell of the pitching deck, the whistles of shells from the battleships
behind them, the white jets of water from enemy fire around them, and
then the sound of bullets hitting the steel ramp that was about to
fall.
One GI later said, "As our boat touched sand and the ramp went
down, I became a visitor to hell."
Hitler's Atlantic Wall was composed of mines and tank obstacles,
trenches and jutting cliffs, gun emplacements and pill boxes, barbed
wire, machine gun nests and artillery trained accurately on the beach.
In the first wave of the landing here at Omaha, one unit suffered
91 percent casualties. As General Omar Bradley later wrote, "Six hours
after the landings, we held only 10 yards of beach." A British
commando unit had half its men killed or wounded while taking the town
of St. Aubin. A D-Day veteran remembers, "The only thing that made me
feel good was to look around and try to find somebody who looked more
scared than I felt. That man was hard to find."
At all the beaches and landing grounds of D-Day, men saw some
images they would spend a lifetime preferring to forget. One soldier
carries the memory of three paratroopers dead and hanging from
telephone poles "like a horrible crucifixion scene." All who fought
saw images of pain and death, raw and relentless.
The men of D-Day also witnessed scenes they would proudly and
faithfully recount, scenes of daring and self-giving that went beyond
anything the Army or the country could ask. They remember men like
Technician 5th Grade John Pinder, Jr., whose job was to deliver vital
radio equipment to the beach. He was gravely wounded before he hit
shore, and he kept going. He delivered the radio, and instead of
taking cover, went back into the surf three more times to salvage
equipment. Under constant enemy fire, this young man from Pennsylvania
was shot twice again, and died on the beach below us.
The ranks of the Allied Expeditionary Force were filled with men
who did a specific assigned task, from clearing mines, to unloading
boats, to scaling cliffs, whatever the danger, whatever the cost. And
the sum of this duty was an unstoppable force. By the end of June 6th,
1944, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers had breached Fortress Europe.
When the news of D-Day went out to the world, the world understood
the immensity of the moment. The New York Daily News pulled its lead
stories to print the Lord's Prayer on its front page. In Ottawa, the
Canadian Parliament rose to sing, "God Save the King" and the
"Marseillaise." Broadcasting from London, King George told his people,
"This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to
win." Broadcasting from Paris, Nazi authorities told citizens that
anyone cooperating with the Allies would be shot. And across France,
the Resistance defied those warnings.
Near the village of Colleville, a young woman on a bicycle raced to
her parent's farmhouse. She was worried for their safety. Seeing the
shattered windows and partially caved-in roof, Anne Marie Broeckx
called for her parents. As they came out of the damaged house, her
father shouted, "My daughter, this is a great day for France."
As it turned out, it was a great day for Anne Marie, as well. The
liberating force of D-Day included the young American soldier she would
marry, an Army Private who was fighting a half a mile away on Omaha
Beach. It was another fine moment in Franco-American relations.
(Laughter.)
In Amsterdam, a 14-year-old girl heard the news of D-Day over the
radio in her attic hiding place. She wrote in her diary, "It still
seems too wonderful, too much like a fairy tale. The thought of
friends in delivery fills us with confidence." Anne Frank even
ventured to hope, "I may yet be able to go back to school in September
or October."
That was not to be. The Nazis still had about 50 divisions, and
more than 800,000 soldiers in France alone. D-Day plus one, and D-Day
plus two and many months of fierce fighting lay ahead, from Arnhem to
Hurtgen Forest to the Bulge.
Across Europe, Americans shared the battle with Britains,
Canadians, Poles, free French, and brave citizens from other lands
taken back one by one from Nazi rule. In the trials and total
sacrifice of the war, we became inseparable allies. The nations that
liberated a conquered Europe would stand together for the freedom of
all of Europe. The nations that battled across the continent would
become trusted partners in the cause of peace. And our great alliance
of freedom is strong, and it is still needed today.
The generation we honor on this anniversary, all the men and women
who labored and bled to save this continent, took a more practical view
of the military mission. Americans wanted to fight and win and go
home. And our GIs had a saying: The only way home is through Berlin.
That road to V-E Day was hard and long, and traveled by weary and
valiant men. And history will always record where that road began. It
began here, with the first footprints on the beaches of Normandy.
Twenty years after D-Day, former President Eisenhower returned to
this place and walked through these rows. He spoke of his joy of being
a grandfather, and then he said, "When I look at all these graves, I
think of the parents back in the states whose only son is buried here.
Because of their sacrifice, they don't have the pleasure of
grandchildren. Because of their sacrifice, my grandchildren are
growing up in freedom."
The Supreme Commander knew where the victory was won, and where the
greatest debt was owed. Always our thoughts and hearts were turned to
the sons of America who came here and now rest here. We think of them
as you, our veterans, last saw them. We think of men not far from boys
who found the courage to charge toward death and who often, when death
came, were heard to call, "Mom," and, "Mother, help me." We think of
men in the promise years of life, loved and mourned and missed to this
day.
Before the landing in Omaha, Sergeant Earl Parker of Bedford,
Virginia proudly passed around a picture of Danny, the newborn daughter
he had never held. He told the fellows, "If I could see this daughter
of mine, I wouldn't mind dying." Sergeant Parker is remembered here at
the Garden of the Missing. And he is remembered back home by a woman
in her 60s, who proudly shows a picture of her handsome, smiling, young
dad.
All who are buried and named in this place are held in the loving
memory of America. We pray in the peace of this cemetery that they
have reached the far shore of God's mercy. And we still look with
pride on the men of D-Day, on those who served and went on. It is a
strange turn of history that called on young men from the prairie towns
and city streets of America to cross an ocean and throw back the
marching, mechanized evils of fascism. And those young men did it.
You did it. (Applause.)
That difficult summit was reached, then passed, in 60 years of
living. Now has come a time of reflection, with thoughts of another
horizon, and the hope of reunion with the boys you knew. I want each
of you to understand, you will be honored ever and always by the
country you served and by the nations you freed.
When the invasion was finally over and the guns were silent, this
coast, we are told, was lined for miles with the belongings of the
thousands who fell. There were life belts and canteens and socks and
K-rations and helmets and diaries and snapshots. And there were
Bibles, many Bibles, mixed with the wreckage of war. Our boys had
carried in their pockets the book that brought into the world this
message: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.
America honors all the liberators who fought here in the noblest of
causes, and America would do it again for our friends. May God bless
you. (Applause.)