POINTE DU HOC, France — President Joe Biden sought Friday to rally Americans to defend democracy from threats at home and abroad — and launched an implicit contrast with Donald Trump – enjoying the heroism of the Army Rangers who scaled the seaside cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in the D-Day invasion 80 years ago.
The same place was engraved in the country’s political memory in 1984, when President Ronald Reagan paid homage to the “boys from Pointe du Hoc” and drew a common cause between their almost unthinkable feat in the face of the tyranny of Nazi Germany and the struggle of the then War Cold. against the Soviet Union. Now, Biden has sought to channel both historic moments to advance his own vision of the country’s global role amid two grueling wars and the persistence of former President Trump, who continued to lying about his defeat in the 2020 election and threatened to dismantle U.S. commitments abroad.
“As we gather here today, it is not just to honor those who demonstrated such remarkable bravery on that June 6, 1944,” Biden said. “It’s to hear the echo of their voices. To listen to them. Because they are summoning us. They are asking us what we will do. They’re not asking us to climb these cliffs. They are asking us to stay true to what America stands for.”
Although it is ostensibly an official speech, coming a day after Biden marked the anniversary From the Normandy landings to solemn ceremonies alongside allies, Biden’s remarks were infused with political overtones as his campaign makes a renewed play for national security-minded Republican voters who loved Reagan and never liked foreign policy Trump’s “America First.”
“They’re not asking us to do their job,” Biden said of the “ghosts of Pointe Du Hoc.” “They are asking us to do our jobs: to protect freedom in our time, to defend democracy, to raise aggression abroad and at home, to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”
A day earlier, Biden paid tribute to the D-Day force in an emotional ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery that was also attended by dozens of veterans nearly 90 and older. As the Navy officer recited “The Watch,” asserting that a new generation was taking up his post in defense of freedom, and a twenty-one gun salute sent eerie smoke over 9,388 white marble tombstones, the president’s eyes fell heavy and raised his fist. like when an F-35 flyby saluted the missing man.
Biden, at 81, not even a generation removed from the Normandy fighters, presented himself – and the nation – as their heirs in the timeless struggle between freedom and tyranny. But the country’s willingness to assume its role has never been, in many ways, so uncertain compared to the possibility of Trump’s return to the White House.
“We are the fortunate heirs to the legacy of these heroes – those who climbed the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc,” Biden said. “We must also be the guardians of their mission… the bearers of the flame of freedom that they held. burning bright.”
It turns out that Biden is also trying to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — to free hostages held by the militant group and increase humanitarian assistance to civilians — while also trying to reorient U.S. foreign policy to confront China’s growing power in Asia.
“Does anyone doubt that they would move heaven and earth to defeat today’s hateful ideologies?” Biden said.
Before flying to Normandy, Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday in Paris, where he emphasized the U.S. commitment to Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion and for the first time publicly apologized to the Ukrainian people by a months-long delay in Congress in American military assistance that allowed Moscow to make gains on the battlefield. It was the first meeting since Biden signed legislation authorizing additional military assistance. He also announced a new US$225 million in ammunition shipmentsincluding rockets, mortars, artillery shells and air defense missiles.
“I apologize for those weeks of not knowing what’s going to happen in terms of funding,” Biden said, but insisted that the American people will stand with Ukraine in the long run. “We’re still inside. Completely. Completely,” he said.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters that Biden’s speech would focus on the sacrifices made by American soldiers during “an existential struggle between a dictatorship and freedom.”
“He will talk about the dangers of isolationism and how if we bow to dictators and fail to stand up to them, they will continue and ultimately America and the world will pay a greater price,” Sullivan added.
Pointe du Hoc is located on the cliffs between Omaha and Utah beaches. Before D-Day, it was believed that the Nazis had stationed artillery there, which would have allowed them to bomb critical landing zones for Allied troops.
Army Rangers used ropes, ladders and their hands to climb Pointe du Hoc while under fire. When they reached the top, they realized that the artillery had already been moved elsewhere and only bait remained. The weapons were tracked nearby and disabled, and the Americans spent two days repelling Nazi counterattacks.
The mission was honored by Reagan on the 40th anniversary of D-Day in 1984.
“These are the boys from Pointe du Hoc,” he said. “These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped liberate a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.”
Reagan’s speech, coming at a time when the Cold War with the Soviet Union continued, was also a call to the US not to turn its back on Europe.
“We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars,” he said. “It is better to be here ready to protect peace, than to shelter blindly across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We have learned that isolationism has never been and will never be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with expansionist intentions.”
It’s a view that would likely put him out of step with the modern Republican Party, which under Trump’s leadership has become increasingly skeptical of foreign entanglements.
Biden highlighted the contrast during his State of the Union this year.
“Not long ago, a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, thundered: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’”, a reference to another famous speech in Berlin. “Now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin: ‘Do whatever you want.’”
Trump made the comment at a February rally in South Carolina, warning European allies not to be “delinquent” in their military spending or he would refuse to help them as president.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
