ALL OF YOU LOVED LIBERTY

It's been over twenty years since President Ronald Reagan traveled to France for the observance of the 40th anniversary of D-Day. On his visit, he poignantly detailed the courage demanded of the American soldiers that stormed the beaches on D-Day and the goodness of their cause.

Although he was addressing World War II veterans, President Reagan's words speak to the valor and the sacrifice of all Americans who served our country throughout its history.

He said, "All of you loved liberty." I imagine President Reagan would say the same to members of today's military.

From President Reagan's speech at Pointe de Hoc, Normandy, June 6, 1984:

Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith, and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge -- and pray God we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.