World War II veteran Gene Kleindl, 102, from Rockford, Ill., received a kiss from Chantell Boivin as he left the Normandy American Cemetery on June 4 in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. Kleindl, a medic with the U.S. Army’s 90th Infantry Division, arrived on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
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President Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when tens of thousands of allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and turned the tide of World War II.
It’s a pilgrimage that many American presidents have made, but when Biden does it, the lessons of 80 years ago are debated anew — and have special resonance for re-election efforts. your.
The anniversary comes as a land war once again breaks out in mainland Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, adding to the stakes as World War II fades from people’s memories and passes. into history books.
“He will take full advantage of the opportunity to talk about the moment we are living in: democracies working together on behalf of their people,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council. them — as well as the importance of American leadership.” reporters.
Biden believes democracy is under attack
To see how Biden views this current moment in history, look at his most recent State of the Union address. He begins with President Franklin Roosevelt in early 1941, months before the attack on Pearl Harbor that would draw the United States into World War II.
President Biden delivers the State of the Union on March 7, 2024.
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“President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up Congress and warn the American people that these are not normal times,” Biden said as he delivered his remarks in the same House chamber where Roosevelt spoke . “Freedom and democracy are under attack around the world.”
At that time, the United States remained on the sidelines of the war. But Hitler was marching in Europe and America’s allies were under attack. Just like then, Biden argued, these are not normal times.
“What makes our moment so rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack at home and abroad at the same time,” Biden said.
Monument at Pointe du Hoc where US Army Rangers climbed the cliffs on D-Day to neutralize German artillery as troops landed on the beaches below.
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MAGALI COHEN/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
Biden is giving a speech from Pointe du Hoc
Expect Biden to expand on those themes in the address to the American people that he is about to deliver from Pointe du Hoc, overlooking the beaches where American troops landed on June 6, 1944. More than 70,000 American troops joined the allied forces for the dangerous and daring D -Operations of the day. Casualties were heavy, with 2,500 Americans killed on D-Day and about 29,000 more killed in the subsequent Battle of Normandy.
Although Biden’s address is not a campaign speech, the undercurrent will be inevitable. Biden has presented his reelection campaign against former President Donald Trump explicitly, as he did at a fundraiser in New York earlier this week.
“Whatever those soldiers died for should never give up,” Biden said. True democracy is on the ballot this year.”
Asked whether this speech about democracy and freedom would be aimed at Trump, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said it would focus on universal themes. “The principles have served as the foundation of American security and American democracy for generations, including the generation that overcame those cliffs, including today’s generation, including the next generation. follow,” Sullivan told reporters traveling with Biden on Air Force One. “He will talk about principles, values and lessons from history that can be applied today.”
Trump questions the value of the NATO alliance
Biden, who describes Trump as an existential threat to America’s global leadership, boasts of mobilizing America’s allies to support Ukraine after Russia’s invasion and expanding NATO to include two new members.
While at the international D-Day commemoration on Thursday, Mr. Biden is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders will discuss the state of the war with Russia, Sullivan said. Biden recently authorized Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to attack inside Russia, an escalation as the war enters its third year.
Trump-affiliated Republicans have questioned the benefits of continued U.S. support for Ukraine. And Trump himself has repeatedly toyed with the idea that the US has not kept its commitments to the NATO alliance.
During a campaign rally in February, Mr. Trump said that the United States would not defend allies that do not spend enough on their defense if Russia attacked them. “In fact. I would encourage them to do whatever they want,” Mr. Trump said.
The NATO alliance and its commitment to mutual defense grew out of the experience of World War II. And the word voting Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that the majority of Americans still support that alliance.
“We have understood for a long time since D-Day that our security, prosperity and freedom depend on security, prosperity and freedom of our allies around the world.” US Ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration.
But Daalder says isolationist sentiment is on the rise. “NATO is becoming politicized in a way it has never been before.” Daalder said.
President Ronald Reagan and two veterans look at the hook used by U.S. Army Rangers to climb the Pointe du Hoc cliff during the 40th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1984.
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Ron Edmonds/Associated Press
What Reagan said on the spot Biden will give his speech
There is a big gap between Trump’s message today and the message President Ronald Reagan delivered 40 years ago at the D-Day ceremony in Normandy.
“We Americans have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars. It is better to be here ready to protect peace than to hide blindly at sea, only to rush in to respond after losing freedom,” Reagan said at that time. “We have learned that isolationism has never been and will never be an acceptable response to expansionist authoritarian governments.”
A lot has changed since 1984. The Berlin Wall fell. The Cold War ended. The Soviet Union disintegrated, only for Russian President Vladimir Putin to attempt decades later to rebuild it.
There were echoes of Reagan’s speech in the way Biden described Putin and his war in Ukraine. But many people don’t believe that argument.
“You could feel the loss of understanding at the end of the Cold War about the intentions of our allies,” said Heather Conley, director of the U.S. German Marshall Fund.
Conley is on a tour across the country, trying to persuade the United States to continue providing military aid to Ukraine. And she’s having tinnitus.
“The American people have some important questions to ask about what is important to our security, the level of our debt,” Conley said. “These are the right questions to ask. But you have to engage them in a conversation.”
Conley, who served as a senior official in former President George W. Bush’s State Department, said she was glad Biden would speak this week. But she said she wished he would have made the case more forcefully and more often.
“If it’s important to the country, we have to have an important conversation with our citizens,” Conley said.
