The day of days
PLUS: Dishonest garbage at the The Wall Street Journal
Eighty years ago, a few minutes past midnight, the liberation of Europe and the destruction of Nazi slavery began when British and American glider and airborne forces fell from the sky across the Normandy country side.
A few hours earlier, the BBC had broadcast the following:
London calling with messages from our friends….
Molasses tomorrow will bring forth Cognac. Jean a de longue mustache (John has a long mustache).
With those words, the Resistance knew the invasion was imminent. Eighty years later, we know the outcome, and can appreciate these events in the full light for what they were — some of the most important, powerful and decisive moments in the annals of human civilization.
June 6, 1945, was called D-Day, the day of days, and it remains so. It will always remain so, even after the last of the veterans from the World War II fall in with their old comrades for a final roll call and the beginning of eternal peace. We have reached the moment when the greatest events of human history are slipping from the realm of living memory.
Today is a day of remembrance and celebration. This is freedom’s day.
I’d like to share something special with you, and hope you will watch it.
It is a CBS News special from 1984. Walter Cronkite returns to France, and introduces the special he had done 20 years earlier with General Eisenhower. Note the transition from color to black and white. It is amazing.
Some of you may note that Cronkite addresses Eisenhower as general, as opposed to Mr. President. It is because when Eisenhower left the presidency, he returned to active duty as a five-star general of the army, making him the only commander in chief to serve under his successor.
This day must be remembered because it deserves to be.
Watch President Biden’s speech. Watch King Charles and President Macron.
Watch Ronald Reagan from 40 years ago on this day, surrounded by the surviving Rangers who assaulted Pointe du Hoc.
Every grave in the American cemetery faces west, back across the Atlantic to the American coast they left and to which they never returned. This American army, at permanent rest in perfect formation, is watching us and always will. What would they think of us? What would they think of him?
They would know what he was. They knew that they were fighting fascists so we could live in peace.
Here are a few of my other pieces about this remarkable day and the extraordinary events that saved the world:
Let freedom ring.
PLUS: Dishonest garbage at the The Wall Street Journal
Further to my essay yesterday about the embarrassing Wall Street Journal story about President Biden’s mind, I spoke with Scripps News’ Chance Seales about the troubling piece:
My father went ashore on Omaha Beach. He survived physically, but, he was never the same again. Several years later our family of four was stationed in post war Japan. My father’s rage and drinking ended the marriage. My mother, brother and I were shipped home. My mother was heartbroken, my brother terrified of the water and safety drills; I was old enough to understand it all and frightened for both of them.
I only saw him twice after that long trip home, I grieve him still. Not all of the causalities lie buried in that sea swept cemetery. Today, my father’s grave overlooks San Diego harbor with a simple epitaph, “a good soldier”.
I just watched President Biden’s speech from the D-Day observance. To all those who believe that Biden is too old to serve a second term, I challenge them to watch this speech. What I witnessed was a strong man filled with resolve to protect our freedom. We are I. Good hands.