Give President Trump credit. His prepared remarks on the 75th anniversary of D-Day were eloquent and inspirational. His words represented the United States quite well.
Any president who speaks in Normandy faces the tall order of trying to live up to former President Ronald Reagan’s 40th anniversary D-Day address (“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc”), which to my mind is one of the greatest speeches ever given in the English language. The comparison is not a fair one, because sequels can never have the freshness of originals. What a sequel can do, though, is to add texture and resonance, while renewing the lessons and depth of feeling that came before.
Trump’s words succeeded splendidly at that task.
The president did a great job of telling individual stories of courage and perseverance. For example, he told of medic Ray Lambert, shot through the arm, leg ripped by shrapnel, back actually broken as he rescued other wounded men. At age 98, he was there at Colleville-dur-Mer, listening to Trump’s speech. So was Pfc. Russell Pickett, wounded three different times, the last one making him unconscious for 12 days, but now “the last known survivor of Company A.”
“These men,” said Trump, “ran through the fires of hell, moved by a force no weapon could destroy: the fierce patriotism of a free, proud, and sovereign people. They battled not for control and domination, but for liberty, democracy, and self-rule…. They were sustained by the confidence that America can do anything because we are a noble nation, with a virtuous people, praying to a righteous God.
“The exceptional might came from a truly exceptional spirit. The abundance of courage came from an abundance of faith. The great deeds of an Army came from the great depths of their love. As they confronted their fate, the Americans and the Allies placed themselves into the palm of God’s hand.”
This is good stuff.
Also good was that Trump gave significant credit to “the fighting Poles, the tough Norwegians, and the intrepid Aussies … the gallant French commandos,” and of course “the full grandeur of British pride” and “the Canadians, whose robust sense of honor and loyalty compelled them to take up arms alongside Britain from the very, very beginning.”
