Saturday, June 06, 2009

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc by Ronald Reagan



Attached is a video of President Reagan's speech "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" delivered on the shores of Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984.

Below is an excerpt from the speech:

We're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We're bound by reality. The strength of America's allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe's democracies. We were with you then; we're with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: "I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

Strengthened by their courage and heartened by their value [valor] and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.