In Normandy, France, President Biden commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings and used the occasion to call on allies to defeat Russian President Putin, a “tyrant” in Ukraine.
Speaking at a ceremony near the beaches of Normandy, Biden joined French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in describing the state of the world on June 6, 1944, when 73,000 Americans joined Allied forces in a momentous mission known as “D-Day,” a turning point in World War II.
“The evil of Hitler’s Third Reich was destroying the world,” Biden said. “Nazi Germany conquered the once-free nations of Europe with violence, lies and a twisted ideology of racial superiority. Millions of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, millions more were killed by bombs, bullets and bloody wars. Hitler and his allies believed democracy was weak, that the future belonged to dictators. Here on the beaches of Normandy, the battle between freedom and tyranny began that June morning.”
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President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, attended a U.S. ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied landings in Normandy, France, during World War II. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Standing before a group of now-100-year-old veterans who, as young soldiers, stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion in history, Biden drew a direct connection between the fight against Nazi Germany and the fighting in Ukraine, which has been ongoing since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
After World War II, the United States helped establish NATO, which Biden calls “the largest military alliance in the history of the world,” and over time, its membership has expanded to 32 countries, the most recent being Finland and Sweden.
President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron watch a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Thursday, June 6, 2024, in Normandy, France. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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“America has invested in alliances and forged new ones, not just out of altruism but also for our own self-interest,” Biden said. “America’s unique ability to bring nations together is undeniably the source of our strength and power. Isolationism is not the answer now, and it was not 80 years ago. We know the dark forces these heroes fought 80 years ago. They never failed. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, the desire to change borders by force: these things will last forever. The struggle between tyranny and freedom will never end.”
On June 6, 2024, President Biden visits the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach in northwestern France. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
“Here in Europe, we see a striking example: Ukraine was invaded by a tyrant hell-bent on domination,” Biden said, referring to Putin but without naming him. “The Ukrainian people fought back with extraordinary courage, suffered heavy losses, and have never retreated.”
Biden said 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the conflict and nearly 1 million “left Russia because they saw no future in it.” By contrast, he said the U.S., NATO and coalition forces of more than 50 nations “remain strong against Ukraine.”
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“We will not walk away. If we walk away, Ukraine will become a vassal, and that will not end there. Ukraine’s neighbors will be threatened. All of Europe will be threatened,” Biden warned. “And make no mistake, dictators around the world are watching to see what happens in Ukraine, to see whether we allow this illegal aggression to go unchecked. We cannot allow that. It is simply unthinkable to bow to tyrants, to bow to dictators.”
